Making American boys : boyology and the feral tale / Kenneth B. Kidd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kidd, Kenneth B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children's stories, American--History and criticism.

Children's stories, American.

Boys--Books and reading--United States.

Boys.

Boys--Books and reading.

United States.

Feral children in literature.

Boys in literature.

Physical Description:

xi, 253 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2004]

Summary:

Will Boys be Boys? What are little boys made of? Kenneth B. Kidd responds to these familiar questions with a thorough review of boy culture in America since the late nineteenth century.

Rnalyzing icons of boyhood and maleness from Huck Finn and Mowgli in The Jungle Books to Father Flanagan's Boys Town and even Michael Jackson, Kidd surveys films, psychoanalytic case studies, parenting manuals, historical accounts of the discoveries of "wolf-boys," and self-help books to provide a rigorous history of what it has meant to be an all-American boy.

Contents:

Boyhood for Beginners: An Introduction 1

1 Farming for Boys 23

2 Bad Boys and Men of Culture 49

3 Wolf-Boys, Street Rats, and the Vanishing Sioux 87

4 Father Flanagan's Boys Town 111

5 From Freud's Wolf Man to Teen Wolf 135

6 Reinventing the Boy Problem 167.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-235) and index.

ISBN:

0816642958

0816642966

OCLC:

53356378