1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910790011003321

Titolo

Children and Youth in a New Nation / / James Marten

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, NY : , : New York University Press, , [2009]

©2009

ISBN

0-8147-5985-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (288 p.)

Collana

Children and Youth in America ; ; 2

Disciplina

305.230973

Soggetti

Child welfare - United States - History

Youth - United States - History - 19th century

Youth - United States - History - 18th century

Children - United States - History - 19th century

Children - United States - History - 18th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-264) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Introduction -- 1. Boy Soldiers of the American Revolution -- 2. Martha Jefferson and the American Revolution in Virginia -- 3. In Franklin’s Footsteps -- 4. French and American Childhoods -- 5. Growing up on the Middle Ground -- 6. A Child Shall Lead Them -- 7. “A Few Thoughts in Vindication of Female Eloquence” -- 8. “Pictures of the Vicious ultimately overcome by misery and shame” -- 9. Children of the Public -- 10. Schooling and Child Health in Antebellum New England -- 11. A Teenager Goes Visiting -- 12. “Though the Means Were Scanty” -- 13. A Stolen Life Excerpts from the Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself (1847) -- Questions for Consideration -- Suggested Readings -- About the Contributors -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In the early years of the Republic, as Americans tried to determine what it meant to be an American, they also wondered what it meant to be an American child. A defensive, even fearful, approach to childhood gave way to a more optimistic campaign to integrate young Americans into the Republican experiment. In Children and Youth in a New Nation, historians unearth the experiences of and attitudes about children and



youth during the decades following the American Revolution. Beginning with the revolution itself, the contributors explore a broad range of topics, from the ways in which American children and youth participated in and learned from the revolt and its aftermaths, to developing notions of “ideal” childhoods as they were imagined by new religious denominations and competing ethnic groups, to the struggle by educators over how the society that came out of the Revolution could best be served by its educational systems. The volume concludes by foreshadowing future “child-saving” efforts by reformers committed to constructing adequate systems of public health and child welfare institutions. Rooted in the historical literature and primary sources, Children and Youth in a New Nation is a key resource in our understanding of origins of modern ideas about children and youth and the conflation of national purpose and ideas related to child development.