States of Childhood From the Junior Republic to the American Republic, 1895-1945

A number of curious communities sprang up across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: simulated cities, states, and nations in which children played the roles of legislators, police officers, bankers, journalists, shopkeepers, and other adults. They performed real wo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Light, Jennifer S.
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cambridge The MIT Press 2020
Series:The MIT Press
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: Directory of Open Access Books - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 02808nma a2200373 u 4500
001 EB002049259
003 EBX01000000000000001192925
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 220822 ||| eng
020 |a 9780262539012 
020 |a 9780262358606 
020 |a 12077.001.0001 
100 1 |a Light, Jennifer S. 
245 0 0 |a States of Childhood  |h Elektronische Ressource  |b From the Junior Republic to the American Republic, 1895-1945 
260 |a Cambridge  |b The MIT Press  |c 2020 
300 |a 1 electronic resource (480 p.) 
653 |a Labour / income economics 
653 |a History of the Americas / bicssc 
653 |a Age groups: children / bicssc 
653 |a Industrial arbitration and negotiation / bicssc 
653 |a History of the Americas 
653 |a Age groups: children 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b DOAB  |a Directory of Open Access Books 
490 0 |a The MIT Press 
500 |a Creative Commons (cc), by-nc-nd/4.0, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 
024 8 |a 10.7551/mitpress/12077.001.0001 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12077.001.0001  |7 0  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
856 4 2 |u https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/78586  |z DOAB: description of the publication 
082 0 |a 900 
082 0 |a 340 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a A number of curious communities sprang up across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: simulated cities, states, and nations in which children played the roles of legislators, police officers, bankers, journalists, shopkeepers, and other adults. They performed real work-passing laws, growing food, and constructing buildings, among other tasks-inside virtual worlds. In this book, Jennifer Light examines the phenomena of "junior republics" and argues that they marked the transition to a new kind of "sheltered" childhood for American youth. Banished from the labor force and public life, children inhabited worlds that mirrored the one they had left. Light describes the invention of junior republics as independent institutions and how they were later established at schools, on playgrounds, in housing projects, and on city streets, as public officials discovered children's role playing helped their bottom line. The junior republic movement aligned with cutting-edge developmental psychology and educational philosophy, and complemented the era's fascination with models and miniatures, shaping educational and recreational programs across the nation. Light's account of how earlier generations distinguished "real life" from role playing reveals a hidden history of child labor in America and offers insights into the deep roots of such contemporary concepts as gamification, play labor, and virtuality.