Synopses & Reviews
and#160;How did mothers transform from parents of secondary importance in the colonies to having their multiple and complex roles connected to the well-being of the nation? In the first comprehensive history of motherhood in the United States, Jodiand#160;Vandenberg-Davesand#160;explores how tensions over the maternal role have been part and parcel of the development of American society.and#160;
Modern Motherhood travels through redefinitions of motherhood over time, as mothers encountered a growing cadre of medical and psychological experts, increased their labor force participation, gained the right to vote, agitated for more resources to perform their maternal duties, and demonstrated their vast resourcefulness in providing for and nurturing their families. Navigating rigid gender role prescriptions and a crescendo of mother-blame by the middle of the twentieth century, mothers continued to innovate new ways to combine labor force participation and domestic responsibilities. By the 1960s, they were poised to challenge male expertise, in areas ranging from welfare and abortion rights to childbirth practices and the confinement of women to maternal roles. In the twenty-first century, Americans continue to struggle with maternal contradictions, as we pit an idealized role for mothers in childrenandrsquo;s development against the social and economic realities of privatized caregiving, a paltry public policy structure, and mothersandrsquo; extensive employment outside the home.
Building on decades of scholarship and spanning a wide range of topics, Vandenberg-Daves tells an inclusive tale of African American, Native American, Asian American, working class, rural, and other hitherto ignored families, exploring sources ranging from sermons, medical advice, diaries and letters to the speeches of impassioned maternal activists. Chapter topics include: inventing a new role for mothers; contradictions of moral motherhood; medicalizing the maternal body; science, expertise, and advice to mothers; uplifting and controlling mothers; modern reproduction; mothersandrsquo; resilience and adaptation; the middle-class wife and mother; mother power and mother angst; and mothersandrsquo; changing lives and continuous caregiving. While the discussion has been part of all eras of American history, the discussion of the meaning of modern motherhood is far from over.
Review
"This volume presents fresh scholarship on the history of girls' cultures and will become an oft-cited, first important collection that helps define the burgeoning field of the history of children and youth."
Review
"Provides the field of girl-centered research with new insights, the most important being that the notion of girlhood is not uniform and fixed, but diverse and dynamic."
Review
andldquo;[
Seen and Heard in Mexico] skillfully weaves together a variety of complex and significant threads while keeping at its center the important topic of the construction of childhood as a central component of postrevolutionary citizenship and nationalism.andrdquo;andmdash;John Lear, professor of history at the University of Puget Sound and author of
Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in Mexico Cityand#160;
Review
andquot;A stimulating book that places mothers at the center of American history, Modern Motherhood highlights the dramatic changes to maternal ideologies, politics, and experiences over 250 years. An impressive achievement.andquot;
Review
andquot;Vandenberg-Daves skillfully illustrates the activity and activism of mothers as well as the power of the rhetoric and the role of motherhoodandhellip;an impressive synthesis of some of the most important recent scholarship on the topic.andquot;
Review
andquot;This book is a comprehensive...history of motherhood in the US. Recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;Jodi Vandenberg-Daves helpfully synthesizes the scholarship on twentieth-century motherhood and its earlier roots. What, she asks, is the history of motherhood as institution and mothering as experience in modern motherhood? Existing scholarship tells most about the former ... Vandenberg-Daves also points to the patterns of social history and the departure of mothering from the institution of motherhood. What happened on the ground is compelling and diverse, if highly elusive in the archives.andquot;
Review
andquot;Whatever kind of mother you may be, or whatever kind of mother you had, you will find her, with her problems and her grief, her determination and her pride, somewhere in these pages.andquot;
Synopsis
Girlhood, interdisciplinary and global in source, scope, and methodology, examines the centrality of girlhood in shaping women's lives. Scholars study how age and gender, along with a multitude of other identities, work together to influence the historical experience.
Spanning a broad time frame from 1750 to the present, essays illuminate the various continuities and differences in girls' lives across culture and region--girls on all continents except Antarctica are represented. Case studies and essays are arranged thematically to encourage comparisons between girls' experiences in diverse locales, and to assess how girls were affected by historical developments such as colonialism, political repression, war, modernization, shifts in labor markets, migrations, and the rise of consumer culture.
Synopsis
During the first two decades following the Mexican Revolution, children in the country gained unprecedented consideration as viable cultural critics, social actors, and subjects of reform. Not only did they become central to the reform agenda of the revolutionary nationalist government; they were also the beneficiaries of the largest percentage of the national budget.
While most historical accounts of postrevolutionary Mexico omit discussion of how children themselves experienced and perceived the sudden onslaught of resources and attention, Elena Jackson Albarrand#225;n, inand#160;Seen and Heard in Mexico, places childrenand#8217;s voices at the center of her analysis. Albarrand#225;n draws on archived records of childrenand#8217;s experiences in the form of letters, stories, scripts, drawings, interviews, presentations, and homework assignments to explore how Mexican childhood, despite the hopeful visions of revolutionary ideologues, was not a uniform experience set against the monolithic backdrop of cultural nationalism, but rather was varied and uneven. Moving children from the aesthetic to the political realm, Albarrand#225;n situates them in their rightful place at the center of Mexicoand#8217;s revolutionary narrative by examining the avenues through which children contributed to ideas about citizenship and nation.
and#160;
Synopsis
How did mothers transform from parents of secondary importance in the colonies to having their multiple and complex roles continuously connected to the well-being of the nation? In the first comprehensive history of motherhood in the United States, Jodiand#160;Vandenberg-Davesand#160;explores how tensions over the maternal role have been part and parcel of the development of American society.and#160;and#160;
About the Author
and#160;JODI VANDENBERG-DAVES is a historian and professor of Womenandrsquo;s Studies at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.and#160; She is editor and co-author of Making History:and#160; A Guide to Historical Research Through the National History Day Program.
Table of Contents
Part I. Girls' Cultures and IdentitiesAmerican Jewish Girls and the Politics of Identity, 1860 & 1920
Growing Up in Colonial Algeria
Immigrant Girls in Multicultural Amsterdam
Feminist Girls, Lesbian Comrades
Part II. The Politics of Girlhood
Girlhood Memories and the Politics of Justice in Post-Rosas Argentina
"A Case of Peculiar and Unusual Interest"
"Life Is a Succession of Disappointments"
Fragilities and Failures, Promises and Patriotism
Holy Girl Power Locally and Globally
Rebels, Robots, and All-American Girls
Part III. The Education of Girls
Palestinian Girls and the British Missionary Enterprise, 1847 & 1948
"The Right Kind of Ambition"
Stolen Girlhood
Fathers, Daughters, and Institutions
Mothers of Warriors
"
[Homemaker' Can Include the World"
Part IV. Girls to Women
From Chattel to "Breeding Wenches"
Girls, Labor, and Sex in Precolonial Egypt, 1850 & 1882
Defiant Daughters and the Emancipation of Minors
The Shifting Status of Middle-Class Malay Girlhood