Bibliograph

Revolutions at home, the origin of modern childhood and the German middle class, Emily C. Bruce

Type

Label

Revolutions at home, the origin of modern childhood and the German middle class, Emily C. Bruce

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

illustrationsmaps

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Revolutions at home

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1203957006

Responsibility statement

Emily C. Bruce

Series statement

Childhoods : interdisciplinary perspectives on children and youth

Sub title

the origin of modern childhood and the German middle class

Summary

"How did we come to imagine what "ideal childhood" requires? Beginning in the late eighteenth century, German child-rearing radically transformed, and as these innovations in ideology and educational practice spread from middle-class families across European society, childhood came to be seen as a life stage critical to self-formation. This new approach was in part a process that adults imposed on youth, one that hinged on motivating children's behavior through affection and cultivating internal discipline. But this is not just a story about parents' and pedagogues' efforts to shape childhood. Offering rare glimpses of young students' diaries, letters, and marginalia, Emily C. Bruce reveals how children themselves negotiated these changes. Revolutions at Home analyzes a rich set of documents created for and by young Germans to show that children were central to reinventing their own education between 1770 and 1850. Through their reading and writing, they helped construct the modern child subject. The active child who emerged at this time was not simply a consequence of expanding literacy but, in fact, a key participant in defining modern life"--, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Introduction. Sentiment and self-control : approaching childhood in the age of revolutions -- Reading serially : the new enlightenment youth periodical for the new youth subject -- Telling tales : folklore transformed for middle-class child readers -- Reading the world : German children's place in geographic education -- Writing home : letters as a social practice -- Writing the self : growing up with diaries -- Furnishing their own age

Classification