This study argues that child abandonment was common among all classes and morally acceptable from antiquity until the Renaissance. Using a variety of sources, Boswell examines the evidence, presenting a history of the abandoned child and illustrating the changing meaning of family.

Historian John Boswell argues persuasively that child abandonment was a common and morally acceptable practice from antiquity until the Renaissance. Boswell examines evidence that parents of all classes gave up unwanted children, "exposing" them in public places, donating them to the church, or delivering them in later centuries to foundling hospitals. 17 photos.