American childhoods / Joseph E. Illick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Illick, Joseph E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children--United States--History.

Children.

Children--United States--Social conditions.

History.

United States.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

xi, 218 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2002]

Summary:

The experiences of children in America have long been a source of scholarly fascination and general interest. In American Childhoods, Joseph Illick brings together his own extensive research and a synthesis of literature from a range of disciplines to present the first comprehensive cross-cultural history of childhood in America. Beginning with American Indians, European settlers, and African slaves and their differing perceptions of how children should be raised, American Childhoods moves to the nineteenth century and the rise of industrialization to introduce the offspring of the emerging urban middle and working classes. Illick reveals that while rural and working-class children continued to toil from an early age, as they had in the colonial period, childhood among the urban middle class became recognized as a distinct phase of life, with a continuing emphasis on gender differences. Illick then discusses how the public school system was created in the nineteenth century to assimilate immigrants and discipline all children, and observes its major role in age-grouping children as well as drawing working-class youngsters from factories to classrooms. At the same time, such social problems as juvenile delinquency were confronted by private charities and, ultimately, by the state. Concluding his sweeping study, the author presents the progeny of suburban, inner-city, and rural Americans in the twentieth century, highlighting the growing disparity of opportunities available to children of decaying cities and the booming suburbs. Consistently making connections between economics, psychology, commerce, sociology, and anthropology, American Childhoods is rich with insight into the elusive world of children. Grounded firmly in social and cultural history and written in lucid, accessible prose, the book demonstrates how children's experiences have varied dramatically through time and across space, and how the idea of childhood has meant vastly different things to different groups in American society.

Contents:

Part I. Early America

Chapter 1. American Indian Childhood 3

Chapter 2. European American Childhood 18

Chapter 3. African American Childhood 36

Part II. Industrial America

Chapter 4. Urban Middle-Class Childhood 55

Chapter 5. Urban Working-Class Childhood 76

Part III. Modern America

Chapter 6. Suburban Childhood 103

Chapter 7. Inner-City and Rural Childhoods 131.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [169]-208) and index.

Local Notes:

Given to the Penn Libraries by Margy Ellin Meyerson in memory of her husband, President Emeritus Martin Meyerson.

ISBN:

0812236599

0812218078

OCLC:

48662525