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Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System

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You may have read Oliver Twist, Dicken's classic about the poorhouse and orphanages of early 19th century Britain. Grenson here provides the American analog, if you've ever wondered what the American experience may have been like. To be sure, Grenson's is not a work of fiction. But reading it gave rise [at least for me] to inevitable comparisons with Dickens.

The book talks about the funding and organisation. It tries to span a vast nation and much of the 19th century. Hence it does not claim to exhaustiveness. But there is still a lot of details. Including some pathetic letters from the hapless orphans, describing why they had been whipped for sundry infractions.