What does it mean to be an American? Following the events of September 11, 2001, that question has surfaced repeatedly in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television, and in public debates surrounding the legal rights of immigrants, access to the courts, and perceptions of our country abroad. This course will add an historical dimension to these discussions by examining a period in United States history, 1900-1950, when what it meant to be American was an important issue for politicians, educators, social scientists, social reformers, and the general public. We will focus on one particular segment of the American population, children, who were considered the inheritors of American culture and the producers of an American future. During this period there emerged a lively discussion of what constituted a distinctly ‘American character’, and of the role of children, child-rearing, and education in the propagation of that character. By studying this discussion, we may gain insights into how we think about the relationship of childhood to social and cultural life today, and into current debates about what constitutes a properly American way of life.

Because this course deals with the everyday business of childhood and child-rearing, we will also explore the making of history in everyday life through the close reading of primary documents such as magazine articles, child-rearing manuals, government reports, advertisements, movies, etc. We will learn to look for the details of how specific ideas of what it means to be a child, or an American child, become embedded in daily life through their dissemination in common, everyday objects.

Required Texts

• David Nasaw, Children of the City
• Viviana Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child
• Elliott West & Paula Petrik, eds., Small Worlds: Children & Adolescents in America, 1850-1950
• Course Reader

These texts can be purchased at the campus bookstore. All other readings are marked with an asterisk and will be found in the course reader, available in the History Department office. Recommended readings are available on request from the instructor. Readings are subject to change, depending on class discussion.

Course Assignments

•Précis: A three-page analysis of the first readings for the class. You will receive a detailed description of the assignment at the first class. Due January 21. (10% of your grade)
•In-Class Presentation and Paper: Each member of the class will be responsible for an in-class presentation on one day of readings for the course, and a 3-4 page paper on those readings. Class members may work together, or alone. We will discuss this in detail during the first class. (15% of your grade)
•Reaction Papers: At certain points during the course, you will be asked to write a 1-2 page paper in reaction to a given reading. The number and timing of these papers will be determined by class discussion. (5% of your grade)
•Midterm Paper: An 8-10 page paper on a topic drawn from one of the two periods we will examine at the beginning of the course. You will receive detailed instructions on how to complete the assignment well in advance of the due date. Due February 25. (20% of your grade)
•FINAL PAPER: A 12-15 page paper that examines the relationship between ideas of childhood and American culture and character in any of the periods we have examined in the course. This paper will require original research. Due April 29. (35% of your grade)
•Class Participation and Attendance: Your attendance is required at all classes unless you have previously arranged to be absent, or have a valid excuse following an absence. Participation—coming to class prepared and contributing to discussion—is an essential part of your experience in this class. (15% of your grade)

The Progressive Era: How to Make Children American

January 14
Introduction: No Reading

January 16
Horatio Alger, excerpts from Ragged Dick*
Nasaw, chapters 1, 3, and 10
Jacob Riis. “Waifs of the City’s Slums”*
Recommended: W.E.B. DuBois: excerpts from The Philadelphia Negro

January 21
Zelizer, Introduction and chapters 1 & 2
Ruth M. Alexander, “ ‘The Only Thing I Wanted Was Freedom’: wayward girls in New York, 1900-1930.” in Small Worlds
Recommended: Robert Park, excerpts from Old World Traits

January 23
Jane Addams, “Adolescence”*
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, excerpts from Concerning Children*
Theodore Roosevelt, “True Americanism”*
Polyanna, starring Mary Pickford, ‘America’s Sweetheart’ (1919)

January 28
John B. Watson, “Instinctive Activity in Animals”*
Franz Boas, “Changes in the Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants.”*
Hamilton Cravens, “Child-Saving in the Age of Professionalism, 1915-1930.”*

The ‘Roaring’ Twenties: The Efficient Production of Manageable Children

January 30
Daniel Beekman, “The Mechanical Baby” and “The Psychologist’s Child.”*

February 4
John B. Watson, Excerpts from Psychological Care of the Infant and Child*
J. Allen Hicks, “What Science is Finding Out About Children.”*

February 6
Laurel Graham, “Beyond Manipulation: Lillian Gilbreth’s industrial psychology and the governmentality of women consumers.”*
Lillian Gilbreth, excerpts from Living With Our Children*

February 11
Richard Maltby, “The Production Code and the Hays Office.”*
T.J. Jackson Lears, “From Salvation to Self-Realization: advertising and the therapeutic roots of consumer culture: 1880-1930.”*

February 13
David Nasaw, “Children and Commercial Culture” in Small Worlds
Excerpts from Photoplay Magazine*
Excerpt from The Congressional Record, 1922*

February 18
Mary E. Odem, “Teenage Girls, Sexuality, and Working-Class Parents in Early Twentieth-Century California.”*

The Great Depression: What is “Normal”?

February 20
Robert and Helen Lynd, Excerpts from Middletown*
Kingsley Davis, excerpts from Youth in the Depression*

February 25
Daniel Beekman, “The Normal Child” and “The Child of Democracy”*
Grace Adams, excerpts from Your Child Is Normal*
Charles and Mary Aldrich, excerpts from Babies are Human Beings*
MIDTERM PAPER DUE

February 27
Richard A. Reiman, “Schooling For Democracy, 1933-1934”*
Dead End (1937) with Humphrey Bogart

March 4 & 6
SPRING BREAK

March 11
Rupert Wilkinson, Excerpts from The Pursuit of American Character*

World War Two: Making Children Different/Making Them Democratic

March 13
Excerpts from American Women at War*

March 18
Margaret Mead, excerpts from And Keep Your Powder Dry*
Geoffrey Gorer, excerpts from The American People: a study in national character*

March 20
Dorothy Baruch, excerpts from You, Your Children, and War*

March 25
PAPER CONFERENCES

March 27
William M. Tuttle, Jr., “The Homefront Children's Popular Culture: Radio, Movies, Comics—Adventure, Patriotism, and Sex-Typing” in Small Worlds

Postwar America: Between Rebellion and Conformity: Making Natural Americans

April 1
Elaine Tyler May, excerpts from Homeward Bound*

April 3
Edith Buxbaum, excerpts from Your Child Makes Sense*
Peter Pan (1953)

April 8
David Riesman, excerpts from The Lonely Crowd*

April 10
Martha Wolfenstein, “Fun Morality: an analysis of recent American child-training literature.”*

April 15
Newsweek May 16 1955. “Bringing Up Baby on Books…Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Child Care.”*
Robert Lindner. Excerpts from Must You Conform?*
Henry Jenkins. “The Sensuous Child: Benjamin Spock and the sexual revolution.”*

April 22
James T. Sears, “Growing Up as a Jewish Lesbian in South Florida: queer life in the fifties.”*

April 24
Anne Moody, excerpts from Coming of Age in Mississippi*
U.S. Supreme Court. Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka*

April 29
FINAL PAPER DUE