The Children's Culture Reader

Every Major Political And Social Dispute Of The Twentieth Century Has Been Fought On The Backs Of Our Children, From The Economic Reforms Of The Progressive Era Through The Social Readjustments Of Civil Rights Era And On To The Current Explosion Of Anxieties About Everything From The National Debt To The Digital Revolution. Far From Noncombatants Whom We Seek To Protect From The Contamination Posed By Adult Knowledge, Children Form The Very Basis On Which We Fight Over The Nature And Values Of Our Society, And Over Our Hopes And Fears For The Future. Unfortunately, Our Understanding Of Childhood And Children Has Not Kept Pace With Their Crucial And Rapidly Changing Roles In Our Culture. Pulling Together A Range Of Different Thinkers Who Have Rethought The Myths Of Childhood Innocence, The Children's Culture Reader Develops A Profile Of Children As Creative And Critical Thinkers Who Shape Society Even As It Shapes Them. Representing A Range Of Thinking From History, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, Women's Studies, Literature, And Media Studies, The Children's Culture Reader Focuses On Issues Of Parent-child Relations, Child Labor, Education, Play, And Especially The Relationship Of Children To Mass Media And Consumer Culture. The Contributors Include Martha Wolfenstein, Philippe Aries, Jacqueline Rose, James Kincaid, Lynn Spigel, Valerie Walkerdine, Ellen Seiter, Annette Kuhn, Eve Sedgwick, Henry Giroux, And Nancy Scheper-hughes. Including A Groundbreaking Introduction By The Editor And A Sourcebook Section Which Excerpts A Range Of Material From Popular Magazines To Child Rearing Guides From The Past 75 Years, The Children's Culture Reader Will Propel Our Understanding Of Children And Childhood Into The Next Century. The Children's Culture Reader -- Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Childhood Innocence And Other Modern Myths -- Part I: Childhood Innocence -- 1. From Immodesty To Innocence -- 2. The Case Of Peter Pan: The Impossibility Of Children’s Fiction -- 3. Children In The House: The Material Culture Of Early Childhood -- 4. From Useful To Useless: Moral Conflict Over Child Labor -- 5. The Making Of Children’s Culture -- 6. Seducing The Innocent: Childhood And Television In Postwar America -- 7. Unlearning Black And White: Race, Media, And The Classroom -- 8. The New Childhood: Home Alone As A Way Of Life -- 9. Child Abuse And The Unconscious In American Popular Culture -- Part Ii: Childhood Sexuality -- 10. Fun Morality: An Analysis Of Recent American Child- Training Literature -- 11. The Sensuous Child: Benjamin Spock And The Sexual Revolution -- 12. How To Bring Your Kids Up Gay -- 13. Producing Erotic Children -- 14. Popular Culture And The Eroticization Of Little Girls -- 15. Stealing Innocence: The Politics Of Child Beauty Pageants -- 16. A Credit To Her Mother -- Part Iii: Child’s Play -- 17. Children’s Desires/mothers’ Dilemmas: The Social Contexts Of Consumption -- 18. Boys And Girls Together . . . But Mostly Apart -- 19. Boy Culture -- 20. The Politics Of Dollhood In Nineteenth-century America -- 21. Older Heads On Younger Bodies -- 22. Confections, Concoctions, And Conceptions -- 23. Living In A World Of Words -- 24. The Tidy House -- Part Iv: Sourcebook -- Section A: Introduction -- 25. Reaching Juvenile Markets -- 26. Does Your ‘‘research’’ Embrace The Boy Of Today? -- 27. ‘‘selling’’ Food To Children -- Section B. The Family In Crisis -- 28. After The Family—what? -- 29. Against The Threat Of Mother Love -- Section C: Children At War -- 30. Children In Wartime: Parents’ Questions -- 31. You Are Citizen Soldiers -- 32. Raise Your Boy To Be A Soldier -- Section D: Popular Culture And The Family -- 33. ‘‘such Trivia As Comic Books’’ -- 34. The Play’s The Thing -- Section E: Freedom And Responsibility -- 35. New Parents For Old -- 36. Families And The World Outside -- 37. Time Bombs In Our Homes -- 38. Democratic And Autocratic Child Rearing -- Section F: The Permissive Family -- 39. The Contemporary Mother And Father -- 40. The New Oedipal Drama Of The Permissive Family -- 41. The Modern Pediocracy -- Contributors -- Permissions -- Index Edited By Henry Jenkins Description Based Upon Print Version Of Record. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. English