E. Wayne Carp

Background

E. Wayne Carp was born on August 2, 1946, in New York, to Raymond Morris and Lorraine Francis (Goebel) Carp.

Education

In 1972, Carp received Bachelor of Arts from the University of California-Berkeley, Master of Arts in 1973, and Ph.D., in 1981.

Career

In 1983, Carp was a visiting lecturer in history at the University of California-Berkeley. Since 1984, he has become a history educator. From 1984 to 1985, he was an associate editor at The Nathanael Greene Papers and Rhode Island History Society in Providence, Rhode Island. From 1985 to 1986, Carp worked at the University of Washington-Seattle as an acting assistant professor of history and at the Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, as an assistant professor of history.

From 1986 to 1992, Carp was an associate professor of history there, and then, became a chair from 1992 to 1998. He also was a department of history at the Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington from 1995 to 1999, and in 1998, he was a professor of history there. Carp was also a visiting assistant professor of history at Stanford University.

Achievements

• Carp is known for his investigation of such problems as the American Revolutionary War period, the history of adoption, and many others. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including several NEH fellowships and a Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship to Seoul, South Korea, where he taught at Yonsei University in 2008.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption

    (Adoption is a hot topic--played out in the news and on TV...)

    1998
  • To Starve the Army at Pleasure: Continental Army Administration and American Political Culture, 1775-1783

    (American political culture and military necessity were at...)

    1984
  • Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption

    (Jean Paton (1908–2002) fought tirelessly to reform Americ...)

    2014
  • Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives

    (Adoption affects an estimated 60 percent of Americans, bu...)

    2002
  • Adoption Politics: Bastard Nation and Ballot Initiative 58

    (The passage of Measure 58 in Oregon in 1998 was a milesto...)

    2004

Views

Carp examines the problems that occurred after the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. For example, he notes, the goals of the American Revolution - personal independence and liberty from a mighty world power - inherently worked against the means needed to fight the Revolution: centralizing political power, calling up a standing army, and confiscating property for use by the Army.

In his more recent work, Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption, Carp provides a sweeping account of the history of adoption in the United States, from colonial times to the present day. In writing his book, Carp explored a huge range of sources, including the confidential records of a twentieth-century adoption agency, and examined the issues of secrecy versus disclosure in adoptions. Whether adopted children should be told they are adopted and whether they should have access to the identities of their birth parents have both been central issues throughout the history of American adoption. Surprisingly, given the focus on secrecy that has prevailed in America since World War II, Carp has discovered that before that time, openness in adoption was the norm, and the social workers who oversaw adoptions believed it was in everyone’s best interest to have as much information as possible. This was most likely because, at the time, most adopted children were orphans, and society saw no shame in this.

Thanks to his “Sealed” records, prevalent since World War U, resulted from several unusual trends in culture, demographics, and society. Fewer children were orphaned, but more were born to unmarried mothers, and this was perceived as a stigma that should be hidden. In addition, psychoanalytical ideas that were in the fashion suggested that adopted children would have psychological problems if they knew the facts about their “illegitimate” origins. Carp also examines American attitudes toward adoption and adopted children, including the stigma of adoption, faulty psychological theories about adoptees, and the perceived differences between biological and constructed families.

Membership

Carp was is a member of the Organization of American Historians, American History Association, Institute for Early American Culture and History and Social Welfare History Group.

Interests

• Visiting second-hand bookstores.

• Sport & Clubs

  Tennis

Connections

On March 2, 2000, Carp married Paula Shields.

Father:

Raymond Morris Carp

Mother:

Lorraine Francis (Goebel) Carp

Wife:

Paula Shields