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.
