[An] often fascinating and massively documented exploration of four
centuries of American childhood..."Huck's Raft" is a work of
scholarly integrity and humanist zeal.--Joyce Carol Oates"Times
Literary Supplement" (03/11/2005)
[A] provocative, anecdote-packed analysis of American parents and
their progeny. From Puritans to postmoderns, we have shaped our
kids to match shifting cultural mores and social desires.--Char
Miller"San Antonio Express-News" (01/16/2005)
[A] richly detailed study of how childhood in the US. has changed
over time...Mintz uses history to debunk several myths--that
childhood once was carefree, families were stable, and American
childhood is the story of either steady progress or
decline.--Steven G. Kellman"USA Today Magazine" (03/01/2005)
[Mintz] proposes to set the record straight in his sweeping study
of American childhood that effectively synthesizes a large body of
scholarship on its subject. The result is an engaging, sober and
often poignant account of how adults have viewed and treated
children and, equally important, how children's own experiences and
life chances have been heavily influenced by economics, race and
ethnicity...The compelling history of childhood he offers us is a
valuable reminder that nostalgia for a golden age that never
existed is not just misleading, but counterproductive.--Eric
Arnesen"Chicago Tribune" (01/02/2005)
Mintz revisits the treatment of children from the Puritan era up to
the edge of the millennium, which he calls 'The Unfinished Century
of the Child, ' showing that we have alternately vilified our
offspring (the Puritans believed they were born in sin) and
glorified them (Victorian parents saw them as pure and
angelic)...Mintz's thorough yet accessibly written study delves
into the external forces that have shaped the lives of our young
while also probing the internal developments in their collective
consciousness.--Janet Sassi"Library Journal" (07/15/2004)
Steven Mintz' brilliant, wide-ranging, but remarkably concise study
shows how complex an invention childhood has been in this
country...The book is so good on the first 300 years or so of the
story that it is somewhat surprising that Mintz is even more
provocative on the last 50 years or so, especially on the most
recent decade. It seems that no other account of Columbine or 'No
Child Left Behind' has been as thoughtful or persuasive...This is
history at its most instructive and engaging.--William T.
Hamilton"Bloomsbury Review" (07/01/2005)
Steven Mintz's "Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood"
offers an impressive and unprecedented synthesis of the relevant
scholarly literature...[It] demonstrate[s] that childhood has never
been a stable, innocent, or transcendent experience...Reflecting
the prevailing literature, the book is a rainbow coalition of
inclusion that arches over the panorama of American history. Anyone
tempted to criticize the book as a 'clip job' misses the underlying
importance of Mintz's signal accomplishment...To any parent trying
to figure out what [kind of kid] he's got, the mundane
manifestations of an innocent childhood are the clues to life.
Mintz's book makes some sense out of this mystery.--James E.
McWilliams"Texas Observer" (09/09/2005)
The children of the past did possess something lost to their
descendants of today: freedom. Once kids were allowed to ride their
bikes all over town or idle away the summer in daydreams; they
could fail a course or even a grade, and no one got overly excited
about it; they might even make serious mistakes and find themselves
pregnant or working on the line at Ford rather than studying lines
of poetry at college. But now, in our test-driven, increasingly
regimented educational system, we forthrightly aim to leave no
child behind, which means that we leave no child alone. Slow
learners must be sped up, dreamy kids must be made to focus, all
must wear uniforms, and, eventually, all must have prizes--or at
least AP courses. In the past, parents might exploit their kids as
little more than indentured servants or simply ignore them. Today
we are their chauffeurs and social secretaries...This is, then, a
rich and stimulating book, revealing how much childhood has changed
over the centuries an
Were this simply a book of trivia about the years of childhood, it
would be fascinating reading...However, this work is much more than
a collection of curiosities. It is an ambitious attempt to retell
the story of America with children as the focus of attention...This
work of historical synthesis is likely to become a classic that
future historians will be hard-pressed to surpass.--Robert
Holland"Richmond Times Dispatch" (02/13/2005)
With the vast number of political and cultural decisions made in
America under the guise of 'thinking of the children, ' a book like
Steven Mintz's brilliant "Huck's Raft", which actually does offer
plenty of thinking about children, is long overdue. Mintz is aiming
to write nothing less than a complete history of childhood in
America, tracing kids' lives from the Puritan era to today and
examining the roles they've played as workers, soldiers, pioneers,
inspirations, burdens, consumers and citizens.--Matt
Konrad"Ruminator" (01/01/2005)
also probing the internal developments in their collective
consciousness.
is history at its most instructive and engaging.
meeting the health needs, education and welfare of all its
children.
the barbarians are at the gates. But really, there's nothing for us
to worry about: One day our children will have children of their
own.
they've played as workers, soldiers, pioneers, inspirations,
burdens, consumers and citizens.
us is a valuable reminder that nostalgia for a golden age that
never existed is not just misleading, but counterproductive.
America with children as the focus of attention...This work of
historical synthesis is likely to become a classic that future
historians will be hard-pressed to surpass.
Mintz's book makes some sense out of this mystery.
ÝAn¨ often fascinating and massively documented exploration of four
centuries of American childhood..."Huck's Raft" is a work of
scholarly integrity and humanist zeal. -- Joyce Carol Oates "Times
Literary Supplement" (03/11/2005)
ÝA¨ provocative, anecdote-packed analysis of American parents and
their progeny. From Puritans to postmoderns, we have shaped our
kids to match shifting cultural mores and social desires. -- Char
Miller "San Antonio Express-News" (01/16/2005)
ÝA¨ richly detailed study of how childhood in the US. has changed
over time...Mintz uses history to debunk several myths--that
childhood once was carefree, families were stable, and American
childhood is the story of either steady progress or decline. --
Steven G. Kellman "USA Today Magazine" (03/01/2005)
ÝMintz¨ proposes to set the record straight in his sweeping study
of American childhood that effectively synthesizes a large body of
scholarship on its subject. The result is an engaging, sober and
often poignant account of how adults have viewed and treated
children and, equally important, how children's own experiences and
life chances have been heavily influenced by economics, race and
ethnicity...The compelling history of childhood he offers us is a
valuable reminder that nostalgia for a golden age that never
existed is not just misleading, but counterproductive. -- Eric
Arnesen "Chicago Tribune" (01/02/2005)
No aspect of American life is as shrouded in idealizing myth as
childhood. In this compelling work of historical synthesis, Mintz
argues forcefully...that for most of the past three centuries
childhood has been the exception rather than the norm...That
childhood has mostly been less than ideal is not surprising. What
may be, for many readers, is Mintz's portrait of just how far from
the ideal this country has been--and perhaps continues to be--in
meeting the health needs, education and welfare of all its
children.
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