Book Review

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Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.4 | The History Cooperative

The Age of the Child: Children in America, 1890-1920. By David I. Macleod. (New York: Twayne, 1998. xiv, 219 pp. $29.95, isbn 0-8057-4105-4.)

In this mature and balanced work, David I. Macleod argues that between 1890 and 1920 Progressive Era reformers attempted to replace the traditional economic view of child rearing with a concept of a "sheltered childhood," based on a new scientific understanding of child development. These reformers urged that youngsters be removed from the labor force, age-segregated, protected from adult concerns, and shepherded by nurturing mothers and trained experts through systematic stages of growth. By 1920, this new style of child rearing had been adopted by many families with sufficient resources, although many others lacked the wealth or the cultural commitment needed to create such child-centered households, in which the young contributed nothing to the family economy. Macleod postulates that "sheltered" childhood rested on the assumption that mothers would undertake the scientific raising of children as an integral part of their responsibilities. This intensive nurturing would prolong dependency, limit exposure to the contaminating influences of the adult world, and create a world of play. . . .

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