Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Prompted by the question, "What would children's lives have been like if these people had not lived?" Shapers of American Childhood: Essays on Visionaries from L. Frank Baum to J.K. Rowling explores individuals in literature, media, health, business, and other areas who impacted childhood in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Ranging from the recognizable, such Walt Disney and Benjamin Spock, to the less well-known, such as Ernest Thompson Seton and Augusta Braxton Baker, these people left indelible marks on children's culture as we know it today. Often controversial for their time, their ideas transformed American life, contributing to the ideal of a happy childhood.]
Synopsis
The experience of growing up in the U.S. is shaped by many forces. Relationships with parents and teachers are deeply personal and definitive. Social and economic contexts are broader and harder to quantify. Key individuals in public life have also had a marked impact on American childhood. These 18 new essays examine the influence of pivotal figures in the culture of 20th and 21st century childhood and child-rearing, from Benjamin Spock and Walt Disney to Ruth Handler, Barbie's inventor, and Ernest Thompson Seton, founder of the Boy Scouts of America.