Original and compelling, Laura Briggs's Reproducing Empire shows how, for both Puerto Ricans and North Americans, ideologies of sexuality, reproduction, and gender have shaped relations between the island and the mainland. From science to public policy, the "culture of poverty" to overpopulation, feminism to Puerto Rican nationalism, this book uncovers the persistence of concerns about motherhood, prostitution, and family in shaping the beliefs and practices of virtually every player in the twentieth-century drama of Puerto Rican colonialism. In this way, it sheds light on the legacies haunting contemporary debates over globalization. Puerto Rico is a perfect lens through which to examine colonialism and globalization because for the past century it has been where the United States has expressed and fine-tuned its attitudes toward its own expansionism. Puerto Rico's history holds no simple lessons for present-day debate over globalization but does unearth some of its history. Reproducing Empire suggests that interventionist discourses of rescue, family, and sexuality fueled U.S. imperial projects and organized American colonialism. Through the politics, biology, and medicine of eugenics, prostitution, and birth control, the United States has justified its presence in the territory's politics and society. Briggs makes an innovative contribution to Puerto Rican and U.S. history, effectively arguing that gender has been crucial to the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico, and more broadly, to U.S. expansion elsewhere.

Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico

History

Briggs, Laura

Americas

University of California Press

How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump (Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the 21st Century) (Volume 2)

Today all politics are reproductive politics, argues esteemed feminist critic Laura Briggs. From longer work hours to the election of Donald Trump, our current political crisis is above all about reproduction. Households are where we face our economic realities as social safety nets get cut and wages decline. Briggs brilliantly outlines how politicians’ racist accounts of reproduction—stories of Black “welfare queens” and Latina “breeding machines"—were the leading wedge in the government and business disinvestment in families. With decreasing wages, rising McJobs, and no resources for family care, our households have grown ever more precarious over the past forty years in sharply race-and class-stratified ways. This crisis, argues Briggs, fuels all others—from immigration to gay marriage, anti-feminism to the rise of the Tea Party.

How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump (Volume 2) (Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the 21st Century)

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Taking Children: A History of American Terror

"You have to take the children away."—Donald Trump Taking Children argues that for four hundred years the United States has taken children for political ends. Black children, Native children, Latinx children, and the children of the poor have all been seized from their kin and caregivers. As Laura Briggs’s sweeping narrative shows, the practice played out on the auction block, in the boarding schools designed to pacify the Native American population, in the foster care system used to put down the Black freedom movement, in the US’s anti-Communist coups in Central America, and in the moral panic about “crack babies.” In chilling detail we see how Central Americans were made into a population that could be stripped of their children and how every US administration beginning with Reagan has put children of immigrants and refugees in detention camps. Yet these tactics of terror have encountered opposition from every generation, and Briggs challenges us to stand and resist in this powerful corrective to American history.

Children's Books

Review\n"This is a formidable book, one that cuts against the Trump exceptionalism that suffuses much mainstream liberal discourse." ― Boston Review\n“An incisive history of kidnapping as American policy. . . . Connects these into a seamless tale of torment, torture and arrogance; a description of US history if there ever was one. It is a history that demands a reckoning.” ― CounterPunch\n“A forceful and captivating book that readers won’t be able to put down, and that listeners from all sort of backgrounds will definitely want to hear more about.” ― New Books Network\nBriggs . . . recounts outrages that are only a few decades old. Resurrecting this forgotten history, she demonstrates its continuity with the recent separation of migrant families.” 
― Reason\n“A meticulously-researched, humane, and highly readable work of scholarship. . . .The book is essential reading for all those with an interest in human rights, social justice issues, child welfare, immigration and American history. It should inspire a generation to challenge and resist the cruel practice of taking children for political ends.” ― Ethnic & Racial Studies\n“A meticulously-researched, humane, and highly readable work of scholarship. . . . Essential reading for all those with an interest in human rights, social justice issues, child welfare, immigration and American history. It should inspire a generation to challenge and resist the cruel practice of taking children for political ends.” ― Ethnic and Racial Studies\n"A wide- ranging and uncomfortably revealing account of what might be called the tradition of family separation." ― New York Review of Books\n"Briggs’ storytelling style in this incisive and well-researched text will keep readers engaged and moving quickly through its pages. . . .Taking Children is an important read for social work students considering a career in child welfare or family services and for professionals and lawmakers interested in movements to reform systems that have historically served to control and police the behavior of individuals and communities of color." ― Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work\n"You have to take the children away."—Donald Trump\nTaking Children argues that for four hundred years the United States has taken children for political ends. Black children, Native children, Latinx children, and the children of the poor have all been seized from their kin and caregivers. As Laura Briggs's sweeping narrative shows, the practice played out on the auction block, in the boarding schools designed to pacify the Native American population, in the foster care system used to put down the Black freedom movement, in the US's anti-Communist coups in Central America, and in the moral panic about "crack babies." In chilling detail we see how Central Americans were made into a population that could be stripped of their children and how every US administration beginning with Reagan has put children of immigrants and refugees in detention camps. Yet these tactics of terror have encountered opposition from every generation, and Briggs challenges us to stand and resist in this powerful corrective to American history.\nFrom the Back Cover\n"Taking Children offers an alarming new perspective on US child welfare policy as political state violence and dispels the still common and misguided view that it is a form of benevolent protection of children. Laura Briggs's framing of child removal as a repressive response to social movements and rebellions by oppressed people is especially enlightening."—Dorothy E. Roberts, author of Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare\n"Sweeping through the hemisphere and the centuries, this book illuminates a dark thread that runs through our history. I hope it inspires people to break that thread forever."—Adam Hochschild, author of Lessons from a Dark Time and Other Essays\n"The timeliness of this short but provocative book is chilling. Taking Children could not be more relevant t

Somebody's Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption

In Somebody's Children, Laura Briggs examines the social and cultural forces—poverty, racism, economic inequality, and political violence—that have shaped transracial and transnational adoption in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. Focusing particularly on the experiences of those who have lost their children to adoption, Briggs analyzes the circumstances under which African American and Native mothers in the United States and indigenous and poor women in Latin America have felt pressed to give up their children for adoption or have lost them involuntarily.
The dramatic expansion of transracial and transnational adoption since the 1950s, Briggs argues, was the result of specific and profound political and social changes, including the large-scale removal of Native children from their parents, the condemnation of single African American mothers in the context of the civil rights struggle, and the largely invented "crack babies" scare that inaugurated the dramatic withdrawal of benefits to poor mothers in the United States. In Guatemala, El Salvador, and Argentina, governments disappeared children during the Cold War and then imposed neoliberal economic regimes with U.S. support, making the circulation of children across national borders easy and often profitable. Concluding with an assessment of present-day controversies surrounding gay and lesbian adoptions and the struggles of immigrants fearful of losing their children to foster care, Briggs challenges celebratory or otherwise simplistic accounts of transracial and transnational adoption by revealing some of their unacknowledged causes and costs.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Duke University Press Books

In Somebody's Children, Laura Briggs examines the social and cultural forces—poverty, racism, economic inequality, and political violence—that have shaped transracial and transnational adoption in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. Focusing particularly on the experiences of those who have lost their children to adoption, Briggs analyzes the circumstances under which African American and Native mothers in the United States and indigenous and poor women in Latin America have felt pressed to give up their children for adoption or have lost them involuntarily.
The dramatic expansion of transracial and transnational adoption since the 1950s, Briggs argues, was the result of specific and profound political and social changes, including the large-scale removal of Native children from their parents, the condemnation of single African American mothers in the context of the civil rights struggle, and the largely invented "crack babies" scare that inaugurated the dramatic withdrawal of benefits to poor mothers in the United States. In Guatemala, El Salvador, and Argentina, governments disappeared children during the Cold War and then imposed neoliberal economic regimes with U.S. support, making the circulation of children across national borders easy and often profitable. Concluding with an assessment of present-day controversies surrounding gay and lesbian adoptions and the struggles of immigrants fearful of losing their children to foster care, Briggs challenges celebratory or otherwise simplistic accounts of transracial and transnational adoption by revealing some of their unacknowledged causes and costs.

Write Your Own Success StoryBreaking into freelance writing has gotten much easier for word-savvy entrepreneurs like you. But even in the golden age of content creation, you still need to know what it takes to launch and consistently pitch your services so you can grow and scale your freelance writing side hustle into a full-fledged career you really love.
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<li>Create a series of pitches that convert to profitable client relationships</li>
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You’ll also get an inside look at a freelance writing business and related tips and strategies from a multi-six figure online freelance writer. So what are you waiting for? The time is “write” to start today!

Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business: The Complete Guide to Starting and Scaling from Scratch (Startup)

Business & Money

The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Briggs, Laura. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Briggs, Laura

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Briggs, Laura. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico

Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico

How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump (Volume 2) (Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the 21st Century)

How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to Foreclosure to Trump (Reproductive Justice: A New Vision for the 21st Century) (Volume 2)

Taking Children: A History of American Terror

Taking Children: A History of American Terror

Somebody's Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption

Somebody's Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption

Somebody's Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption

Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business: The Complete Guide to Starting and Scaling from Scratch (Startup)