Imagined orphans : poor families, child welfare, and contested citizenship in London / Lydia Murdoch.

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, [2006], ©2006.

xii, 252 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-242) and index.

"A little waif of London, rescued from the streets": melodrama and popular representations of poor children -- From barrack schools to family cottages: creating domestic space and civic identity for poor children -- The parents of "nobody's children": family backgrounds and the causes of poverty -- "That most delicate of all questions in an Englishman's mind": the rights of parents and their continued contact with institutionalized children -- Training "Street Arabs" into British citizens: making artisans and members of empire -- "Their charge and ours": changing notions of child welfare and citizenship.