Small Worlds Children and Adolescents in America, 1850–1950 Edited by Elliott West and Paula Petrik 426 pages, 72 photographs, 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-0510-1, $29.95 Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-0511-8, $17.95 Historians have been guilty of child neglect. Yes, they've studied children, but only to learn about adults. Typically they've chosen adult-centered research topics like child-rearing practices, social attitudes toward children, and the evolution of public institutions like education and juvenile courts. The thirteen essays in Small Worlds take a different tack. They treat children as active, influential participants in society. Here children and adolescents from the pre-Civil War generation to 1950 are seen as actors in their own right, shapers of their own history who not only mirror adult values, but also modify them. Editors Elliott West and Paula Petrik have organized the essays in Small Worlds around four topics: cultural and regional variations, toys and play, family life, and the ways evolving memories of childhood shape how adults think of themselves. And, since photography provides the best record of childhood, they've added a photographic essay by Ray Hiner entitled "Seen but Not Heard." "A youthful perspective on the past can provide a much better understanding of changes in American material and economic life," write West and Petrik. Young people, they argue, performed many of the essential jobs in newly industrialized America, and they continued to play vital roles on their families' farms well into the twentieth century. As a result, children have been increasingly influential in American economic life--as consumers. According to West and Petrik, the study of children also reveals how values evolve out of the mutual give-and-take between society and child in the socialization process. This enormously complex evolution continues as the child matures and, in turn, tries mightily to pass on values to a new generation of children who work just as strenuously to make up their own minds. "It is good to see writing and research about the history of children burst forth with the social diversity, imaginative research, and relevance to the present that are displayed in this collection. For too long, the lives of children have been merely an adjunct of family history; in this volume those lives become, as they should, the story of children themselves examining and evaluating their parents and their teachers as well as their peers in various regions and social situations within the United States."--Carl N. Degler, author of At Odds: Women and the Family in America, from the Revolution to the Present "The highly commendable purpose of Small Worlds is to portray the children of America's past as historical actors in their own right. In spite of the many difficulties presented by the scant historical evidence pertaining to children, the authors in this collection have constructed significant and original narratives relating vivid stories of forgotten younger citizens. Balanced and sensitive to issues of race, class, and gender, Small Worlds is an important and timely addition to the swelling volume of literature pertaining to the history of American children."--Joseph M. Hawes, author of The Children's Rights Movement in the United States "This book represents a new and imaginative reconception of the American experience. . . . Especially noteworthy is the emphasis on material culture."--David M. Katzman, author of Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America ELLIOTT WEST is professor of history at the University of Arkansas and author of The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado, which won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Pen Center West Award, the Ray Allen Billington Prize, the Caughey Western History Prize, the Western Writers of America Spur Award, and the Caroline Bancroft Prize. PAULA PETRIK is associate professor of history at the University of Maine and author of No Step Backward: Women and the Family on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier, Helena, Montana, 1865–1900. CONTRIBUTORS: David Nasaw, Elliott West, Selma Berrol, Vicki L. Ruiz, Bernard Mergen, Miriam Formanek-Brunell, Paula Petrik, William M. Tuttle, Jr., Ray Hiner, Lester Alston, Victoria Bissell Brown, Robert L. Griswold, Ruth M. Alexander, Liahna Babener   Home | About the Press | Recent Awards | Contact Us | Order New Books: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series Books in Print: | By Author | By Subject | By Title | By Series ©2007 University Press of Kansas 2502 Westbrooke Circle, Lawrence, KS 66045-4444 Phone (785) 864-4155; Fax (785) 864-4586