AMST 150a
Spring 2016
Course Hours: Tues., Fri. 12:30-1:50 pm
Shiffman 125
Prof. Jonathan Krasner
jkrasner@brandeis.edu
ASAC 123, ext. 62372
Office Hours: Fri. 2-3:30 pm
T.A. Kendra Yarbor
kam1483@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Tues. 10 am-12 pm
Lown 115, cubicle 3
The History of Youth and Childhood
Course Description:
This course will explore how history and culture have shaped the experience of childhood and
adolescence across the generations. Students will examine discourses developed by child-rearing
experts and analyze changes in the role of socializing institutions such as the family, youth
organizations, schools, camps, government agencies, and the workplace. Special attention will
be devoted to exploring the cultures that children and youth have constructed and to probing the
impact of these cultures on American life. The diversity of childhood experience according to
gender, ethnicity, class, race, region, and religion is a key theme, as is the changing relationship
between parents and children. The social constructions of childhood will be probed by examining
transformations in such major aspects of children’s lives as play; bodies; literature; schools; and
media.
Students will be able to identify and critically evaluate the ways in which childhood has been
socially and historically constructed in different periods of American history. They will learn to
read texts critically across disciplinary boundaries and to use historical evidence from primary
and secondary sources to shape their arguments, understanding both experiences of children and
youth and ideas about them.
Books
The following books should be purchased through an online bookseller and will be available on
reserve in Goldfarb Library:
Judy Blume, Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret (Yearling, 1986)
Rose Cohen, Out of the Shadow: A Russian Jewish Girlhood on the Lower East Side (Cornell,
1995)
Gary Cross, Kids’ Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood (Harvard, 1997)
Steven Mintz, Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood (Belknap/Harvard University
Press, 2004)
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (Bantam Dell, 1968)
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are (HarperCollins, 1984)
All other book chapters, articles, films and videos are available on LATTE
Requirements
1. Attendance: All students are required to attend class regularly. Attendance will be taken
at the beginning of class and students who have more than one unexcused absence may
be penalized.
2. Readings: Students should come to class prepared to discuss the readings and/or video
assignments (20%)
3. Mini-Papers: Students will be required to submit four out of the five (2-3 page) response
papers scheduled over the course of the semester. (20%)
4. Comparative Childhood Paper: (20%)
5. Toys Paper: (20%)
6. Inside/Out Paper: (20%)
Critical Response Papers
These 2-3 page papers require students to reflect on select topics. Papers will be graded based
on students’ demonstrated ability to construct and support an argument grounded in an analysis
of the course readings. Students must complete 4 out of 5 papers over the course of the
semester.
1. Discuss the impact of race, gender or class on American childhood before the Civil War.
Due Date: January 29
2. Discuss how and why Americans’ fascination with and desire to preserve childhood in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries connected to larger social, economic and
cultural trends. Due Date: February 12
3. How did the American conception of adolescence evolve between the late-19th and mid20th centuries? Due Date: March 11
4. Discuss the impact of commercialization on the construction of childhood and children’s
culture. Due Date: April 8
5. To what extent do today’s children and youth face unprecedented challenges? Can we
draw parallels between today and earlier periods of American history? Due Date: April
19
Comparative Childhood Paper
Compare and contrast the childhoods of Rose Cohen and Anne Moody, based on their childhood
memoirs. How were these protagonists shaped by childhood adversity? How do their experiences
shed light on the constructed nature of childhood? (4-5 pages) Due Date: March 29
Toys Paper
Read Gary Cross’s book, Kids Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of Childhood. Then choose a
toy that was meaningful to you growing up and compare it to a favorite childhood toy of a family
member or friend who was born prior to 1970. Ask your friend/family member and yourself why
these particular toys were meaningful to you. Research the history of each toy and how they
reflect the time and place in which they were developed. If applicable, see if you can find print or
television advertisements (search online) that will give you a sense of how these toys were
marketed. Then write a paper utilizing what you’ve learned about these toys and their historical
contexts to make a larger argument about historical trends in childhood play and what this
suggests about the changing nature of American society. (5-6 pages) Due Date, May 5
Inside/Out Paper
Discuss the representation of children and childhood in the 2015 Disney film Inside/Out. What
does the film suggest about the way Americans view childhood in the early twenty-first century?
Provide specific examples from the film to illustrate your argument(s). Compare this view with
at least one other earlier period of American history. In what respects do you see continuity and
change? (4-5 pages) Due Date, May 5
Academic Honesty
All work turned in for this class must be completely your own; quotations from the
writings and thoughts of others must be appropriately acknowledged in footnotes to
written assignments. Sources include not only print but web materials, ideas you learned
from other classes and students. As stated in the Student Handbook, “Every member of
the University community is expected to maintain the highest standards of academic
honesty. A student shall not receive credit for work that is not the product of the
student’s own effort.”
Classroom Policies
To minimize distractions and maintain a positive classroom environment, all cell-phones,
smart-phones, IPods, IPads, and any other such devices must be turned off and remain
out of sight during class. Laptops will be allowed for note taking and the reading of class
documents on LATTE. If you are caught abusing this policy and using your laptop for
email, social networking, etc., you will be forbidden from bringing a laptop to class. If
you will not be using a laptop, please bring a copy of the LATTE readings to class on the
date it is being discussed.
Students with documented disabilities
If you are student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis and wish to have a
reasonable accommodation made for you in the class, please see me as soon as possible, and
present your letter of accommodation.
Preparation time
Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a
minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers,
discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
Assignment Schedule
January 15
Introduction
Read: Joseph Hawes and Ray Hiner, “Reflections on the History of
Children and Childhood in the Postmodern Era,” in Major Problems in
the History of American Families and Children, pp. 23-29
Mintz, Huck’s Raft, 1-31
January 19
Children in the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras
Read: Mintz, 32-74
January 22
Constructing Childhood in the Victorian Era
Read: Mintz, 75-93
January 26
Boy Culture
E. Anthony Rotundo, American Manhood: Transformations in
Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era, pp. 31-55
Guest Speaker: Anthony Rotundo
January 29
Childhood in Bondage and During the Civil War
Read: Mintz, 94-132
Critical Response Paper # 1 Due
February 2
Child Laborers and Child Savers in the Gilded Age
Read: Mintz, 133-184
Film: The Orphan Train (PBS)
February 5
Back to Nature
Leslie Paris, Children’s Nature, 1-60, 96-131, 165-278
February 9
Imagining Childhood I
Read: Mintz, 185-199
February 12 Imagining Childhood II
Read: Frank L. Baum, The Wizard of Oz
Critical Response Paper #2 Due
February 23 Immigrant Childhood
Mintz, 200-212
Rose Cohen, Out of the Shadow
February 26 Daughters of the City
Watch: Triangle: Remembering the Fire (HBO Film)
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
March 1
Inventing Adolescence:
Mintz, 213-232
Film: Teenage
March 4
Children of the Depression and World War II
Mintz, 233-274
March 8
Coming of Age During the Cold War
Mintz, 275-309
March 11
Youth Revolt
Mintz, 310-334
Film: Rebel Without Cause
Critical Response Paper # 3 Due
March 15
Bringing Up Baby
March 18
Monsters and the Supernatural:
Maurice Sendak and Virginia Hamilton
Guest Speaker: Jodi Eichler-Levine
March 22
Playtime
Howard Chudacoff, Children at Play, 98-181
March 29
Growing Up Black in the Postwar South
Read Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi
Comparative Childhood Paper Due
April 1
Girlhood
Joan Jacobs Bromberg, The Body Project: An Intimate History of
American Girls, xvii-55, 97-137
Film: Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour
April 5
Girlhood
Judy Blume, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret
Guest Speaker: Joellyn Zollman
April 8
The “Disney-ization” of Childhood
Henry Giroux and Grace Pollack, The Mouse that Roared: Disney and
the End of Innocence, 1-55, 91-132
Jack Zipes, “Breaking the Disney Spell,” in From Mouse to Mermaid, 2142
Critical Response Paper #4 Due
April 12
Queering Childhood
Film: Growing Up Trans (PBS)
Film: Scouts Honor (2001) OR Gay Youth (2006)
Selections from Paul Monette, Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story
(2004)
April 15
Contemporary Teens and Faith
Film: Soul Searching
NPR Report: “Losing Our Religion”
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2013/01/14/169164840/losing-our-religion-the-growth-ofthe-nones
NPR Report: “More Young People are Moving Away from Religion”:
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/15/169342349/more-young-peopleare-moving-away-from-religion-but-why
NPR Report: “On Religion Some Young People Show Both Doubt and
Respect”
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/17/169450811/on-religion-someyoung-people-show-both-doubt-and-respect
April 19
The End of Childhood?
Parental Panics
Mintz, 335-384
Rachel Kalish and Michael Kimmel, “Suicide by Mass Murder:
Masculinity, Aggrieved Entitlement and Rampage School Shootings,”
Health Sociology Review (2010), pp. 451-464
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Letter to My Son,” Atlantic, July 4, 2015.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/tanehisicoates-between-the-world-and-me/397619/
Film: Growing Up Online (PBS)
Critical Response Paper #5 Due
April 21
Conclusion
Film: Inside/Out (2015)
May 5
Toys Paper and Inside/Out Paper Due