Growing Up in America: Children in Historical Perspective

Published in 1985, this reader introduces the topic of children in history and explains why this burgeoning field mandates further study. The editors have selected multiple essays dealing with topics of importance in the history of childhood and the American family in an effort to display the breadth and depth possible in studying this largely under-developed aspect of history. The essays cover the gamut of topics from childhood in colonial New England to Progressive attempts to create juvenile courts to the child-rearing advice of Dr. Benjamin Spock. The editors have done a nice job in selecting essays that are reflective of many different aspects of childhood/family history, and have provided the reader with a solid introduction to the topic. The essays are all well written scholarly pieces that demonstrate significant amounts of research and either challenge long held views or introduce new sub-topics that are of importance in the history of American childhood. I chose to give the book only four stars instead of five because of an obvious lack of careful editing - there are multiple typographical errors in the text, including blatant date errors (i.e. in an essay addressing 19th century America, one reference is to an event in the 1950's. Upon careful reading it is obvious that the author intended to refer to the 1850's, but the editors did not catch this error). Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an introduction to the study of childhood/family history in America. It is geared towards undergraduate students or beginning graduate students that have a special interest in the topic of childhood or family history.