Dependent States: The Child's Part in Nineteenth-Century American Culture

Dependent States: The Child's Part in Nineteenth-Century American Culture Karen Sánchez-Eppler. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

"This book is about dependency" (ix), begins Karen Sánchez-Eppler in her study of childhood in nineteenth-century America. Throughout her book, she proves just that: children are not only dependent creatures, but also much of importance in culture depends on them. Although children are frequently discounted in historical and cultural studies, Sánchez-Eppler gives them their due, addressing the unique position that children occupy and the ways in which they are both objects and forces of socialization. She divides her study into three main categories: literacy...