Moira Hinderer mehinder@uchicago.edu
Syllabus for History 188:
Colloquium: Childhood in America
This research colloquium is designed to introduce students
to the major issues in the history of childhood in the United States
during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The class
will examine how and why specific ideas and experiences of childhood
have developed over time. Major themes of the class include: the rise
of the sentimental child, childhood in the context of slavery and
Emancipation, the discovery of child labor, the rise of specialized
goods and institutions for children, and the creation children's rights
movements. We will discuss shared ideals of childhood as well as differences
of race, class, gender, geography, and generation. Class readings
will incorporate a variety of approaches scholars have taken in writing
the history of childhood including: exploring ideas of childhood as
understood by adults; examining the goods, institutions, and experiences
adults created for children; and attempting to reconstruct the experiences
and voices of children themselves.
The major project for each student in this colloquium
is a ten to twelve page research paper based on primary sources.
As preparation for the paper the class will examine a variety of methodological
approaches to history. We will use locally available archival
collections to address research methods and problems. We will also
examine research strategies that use published texts, oral histories,
and visual sources.
In addition to the research paper, course requirements
include the completion of weekly readings and active participation
in class discussion. As part of the research process students will
be asked to bring several examples of primary sources to class, to
complete a two-page research proposal, and to present two brief in-class
reports on the research project.
Required texts
Henry Jenkins ed., Children's Culture Reader
(New York: New York University Press,1998).
All other readings are on reserve at the Regenstein Library.
Part 1: Defining Childhood
March 28: Introductions
Lecture/Discussion: What is Childhood? How and Why Do
We Study It?
March 30: Seeking the Historical Child
Henry Jekins, "Childhood Innocence and Other Modern Myths"
Children's Culture Reader (CCR) 1-20
Emily Cahan et al., "The Elusive Historical Child: Ways of
Knowing the Child of History and Psychology" in Elder, Children
in Time and Place,192-220.
April 4: Childhood and Change Over Time
Philippe Aries, "From Immodesty to Innocence" CCR,
41-56
Viviana Zelizer, From Useful to Useless: Moral Conflict Over Child
Labor" CCR , 81-94
Part 2: Researching Childhood
April 6: Research Approaches to Childhood
Visit special collections. We will meet in
Special Collections at the Regenstein Library (JRL 111), during our
regular class period. Archivists at Special Collections will speak
to the class about the library's holdings related to the history of
childhood, including the E.B Collection of historical children's books,
and the papers of reformers Grace and Edith Abbott, and sociologists
Ernest Burgess and Alison Davis. We will view selected items from
the collections and discuss possible sources and topics for research
papers.
April 11: Research Approaches, Childhood and the State
Barbara Finkelstein, "Uncle Sam and the Children:
A History of Government Involvement in Child Rearing" in Growing
Up in America, 255-266.
OR
Alison Brysk, "Children Across Borders: Patrimony,
Property or Persons," People out ofPlace: Organization,
Human Rights, and the Citizenship Gap, 153-172.
Assignment : Bring to class an example of a primary
source that deals with the history of childhood and the state produced
between 1600 and 1970. Examples could include legal cases, state
or federal regulations, records of publicly funded institutions. Be
prepared to briefly discuss why you chose this item, the issues it raises,
and how you would use it to make a historical argument.
April 13: Research Approaches, Childhood and Cultural
Production
Neil Harris, Planes, Trains and Automobiles:
The Transportation Revolution in Children's Books, 1-12.
Assignment: Read one historical children's book
in the E.B. Collection at Special Collections. Come to class prepared
to discuss the book in class.
April 18: Research Approaches, Childhood and Resistance
Carolyn Steedman, "The Tidy House" CCR,
431-453.
Assignment: Bring a primary source that contains
an example of a child's voice, writing, or artistic expression.
Examples might include diaries, letters, drawings, or interviews.
Come to class prepared to discuss your source.
April 20: Research Approaches, Paper Proposals
Assignment: For class, prepare a five-minute presentation
about your preliminary research topic. In the presentation you
should identify the primary sources you will consult and the major problem
you will address. A one or two page summary of the proposal is also
due in class.
Part 3: Creating an Historical Narrative
April 25: The Sentimental Child and the Problem
of Slavery
David Brion Davis, "The Quaker Ethic and the Antislavery
Debate" in The Antislavery Debate, 27-64
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Chapters
25-26 [302-321]
April 27: Slave Childhood
Wilma King, Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth
Century America, 1-50
May 2: Children in the Age of Emancipation
Peter Bargadlio, "The Evolution of Contractual Families"
in Reconstructing the Household: Families, Sex, and the Law
in the Nineteenth Century South, 137-175
Rebecca Scott, "The Battle Over the Child: Child
Apprenticeship and the Freedmen's Bureau in North Carolina, in Growing
Up in America, 193-207
May 4: Inventing Child Labor
John Hingham, "Industrialization of Child Labor"
Child Labor, 2-41
Muller v. Oregon (class handout)
View Lewis Hine photographs held by the National Archives
at http://www.archive.gov
May 9: Child Saving, Constructing the Problem
Hingham, "Child Labor Reform" Child Labor,
44-83
Jane Addams, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets,
Chapters 1 and 2, 8-30.
May 11: Generations, Cohorts, and Social Change
Glen Elder and Tamara Hareven, "Rising Above Life's
Disadvantage: From the Great Depression to the War" in Children
in Time and Place, 27-46
William Tuttle, "America's Home Front children in
World War II" in Children in Time and Place, 47-72
May 16: Generations and Class Consciousness
Robin Kelley, "'We are Not What we Seem' The Politics
and Pleasures of Community" in Race Rebels:
Culture and Politics and the Black Working Class 35-53
E.P. Thompson, "Childhood" The Making of
the English Working Class, 331-349
May 18: Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Children's Rights
Dominque Marshall, "Humanitarian Sympathy for Children
in Times of War and the History of Children's Rights, 1919-1959"
in Growing Up in America, 184-200
Declaration on Rights of Children (1924) (class handout)
Declaration of Rights of the Child (1959) (class handout)
Resolution on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide (1948) (class handout)
May 23: Brown v. Board
Hannah Arendt, "Reflections on Little Rock"
The Portable Hannah Arendt, 231-247
Opinion of the Court in Brown v. Board of Education,
(1954)
Kenneth B. Clark, Effect of Prejudice and Discrimination
on Personality Development, (Midcentury White House Conference on Children
and Youth, 1950)
Rough Drafts due 3:00pm Friday May 27 in Chalk Digital
Drop Box.
May 25: Child Saving II, Childhood and Liberalism
LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, Our America: Life and
Death on the South Side of Chicago, 29-49
Laura Briggs, "Mother, Child, Race, Nation: The Visual
Iconography of Rescue and the Politics of Transnational and Trans-racial
Adoption" Gender and History, 179- 198.
Marina Warner, "Little Angels, Little Devils: Keeping
Childhood Innocent" Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our
Time, 33-48
Class 21: Paper Presentations
Class 22: Paper Presentations Continued
Final papers due the last day of finals week at
noon.
Grades
20% participation
30% short assignments and class presentations
50% final paper
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