Paula S. Fass - The End of American Childhood: A History of Parenting from Life on the Frontier to the Managed Child

A HISTORY OF PARENTING FROM LIFE ON THE FRONTIER TO THE MANAGED CHILD

Paula S. Fass

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Princeton & Oxford

Copyright 2016 by Paula S. Fass

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fass, Paula S., author.

The end of American childhood : a history of parenting from life on the frontier to the managed child / Paula S. Fass.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-691-16257-7 (hardback) ISBN 0-691-16257-3 (hardcover) 1. FamiliesUnited StatesHistory. 2. ParentingUnited StatesHistory. 3. ChildrenUnited StatesHistory. I. Title.

HQ535.F37 2016

306.850973dc23

2015031606

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Sabon Next LT Pro, Montserrat, and Matchbook

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has occupied me for years, and it has accumulated many debts. Some of these cannot be fully acknowledged, but happily its publication allows me to note the kindness and assistance of institutions and individuals who have helped me to think through the issues I write about and gave me the time and space to conduct the research on which it is based. The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford welcomed me to its haven for a second time in 20062007 at a crucial stage in the evolution of my research and provided resources for excellent fellowship and conversation. My stay at the center was funded by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, whose assistance I am delighted to acknowledge.

The centers intense intellectual life was further enriched by the presence of my close colleagues Bengt Sandin, Maria Sundqvist, and Steven Mintz. Claude Steele, the centers then director, made it possible for me to hold several mini-conferences on childhood that expanded the numbers as well as the range of our small group to include Stephen Lassonde, Michael Grossberg, Kriste Lindenmeyer, and Mary Ann Mason. Together we became a set of adventurers who stretched the boundaries of how childhood could be understood and imagined. Dolores Hayden and the late Peter Marris also provided excellent companionship on the hill and helped me to think and write more clearly.

Some of my ideas were developed in a variety of presentations to groups of students and colleagues over the past seven years. I am especially pleased to acknowledge Tema Barn (the Department of Childhood Studies) at Linkping University, Sweden, where I was the Kerstin Hesselgren Professor and spent a splendid semester in 2008, with special thanks to Bengt Sandin; the Center for Advanced Studies at the Ludwig-Maxmillian Universitt, Munich, Germany, which kindly invited me to inaugurate their Program in Childrens Studies in April 2013; the Child Speaker Series at Palo Alto University (2012), with thanks to Robert Russell; the University of Victoria, Canada, where I was Distinguished Guest Woman Scholar in 2012, with thanks to Rachel Hope Cleve; the History Department at Tel Aviv University, Israel (2011) with thanks to Eyal Naveh; the Eugene Lang College of the New School, New York, where I spoke in 2011; the Child Studies Department at Rutgers University, Camden (2010); the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Felton Earls, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for hosting an important conference on Childrens Rights in 2009; the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York (2009); the History Seminar at the University of Lund, Sweden (2008); the Seminar on Polity, Society and the World in 2008 at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, with special thanks to Dennis Bryson; Kastamonu University, Turkey (2008), where my friend and colleague Nihal Ahioglu Lundberg provided a very warm welcome. I most fully anticipated the themes and arguments of this book at presentations at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia (2013) and the Annual Lecture at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC (2013). The Society for the History of Children and Youth has been a sustaining presence in my life since its founding, and its conferences have provided me with the occasions to present ideas and work in progress, the company of kindred scholars, and opportunities for learning.

Through all this time, my efforts have been supported and encouraged by colleagues and staff at the History Department of the University of California at Berkeley, where funds from the Margaret Byrne Professor Chair have underwritten my research. I will always be grateful for this assistance, so basic to the books evolution. For secretarial assistance, I want to thank Alex Coughlin. So, too, my colleagues in the Child and Youth Policy Center at Berkeley have generously financed several conferences that I sponsored on the Berkeley campus over the years. Most recently, Jill Duerr Berrick, its director, provided funds to pay for the illustrations in this book. This center and the Berkeley Family Forum have been an important part of my intellectual formation, and its influences will be evident in the book. I want to acknowledge especially my friends Mary Ann Mason, Steve Sugarman, and Neil Gilbert. Berkeley has excellent graduate students, several of whom have been actively involved in this book. I note, with special thanks, the contributions of Amanda Littauer, Caroline Hinkle McCamant, Julie Stein, Candace Chen, Gabriel Milner, Don Romesburg, and Jennifer Robin Terry. To my delight, Lisa Shapiro and Meghana Ravikumar volunteered to intern with me during the summers when I was starting and completing this book.

As I was finishing the book, I imposed on several people to read it. These included Stephen Lassonde, Mary Ann Mason, Julia Grant, Howard Chudacoff, and John Demos. John probably does not know how important his encouragement and the example of his skill as a historian have been to me. The production of this book was handled with exemplary care and attention at Princeton University Press, where my editor Brigitta van Rheinberg was alert to its potential and has been generous with her praise and suggestions. It is the kind of support that authors crave. The book was expertly edited by Karen Fortgang and Molan Goldstein, and its path to the public carefully supervised by Julia Haav, James Schneider, and Quinn Fusting. Jill Marsal is an exceptional agent, responsive and alert, an editor as well as an advisor. My thanks go out to this whole team.

My children, Bluma Lesch and Charles Lesch, have been a constant inspiration. Charlie, himself an excellent writer, read the draft I sent to colleagues and provided important comments and suggestions. Above all, Jack has been my companion through the research, the thinking, the writing, and the years of learning about children and parenting. My life and work have been enriched in so many ways by his presence, his help, and his love; it is difficult to recount completely the contribution he has made.