Shapers of American Childhood: Essays on Visionaries from L. Frank Baum to Dr. Spock to J.K. Rowling - Paperback

by Kathy Merlock Jackson (Editor), Mark I. West (Editor)

The experience of growing up in the U.S. is shaped by many forces. Relationships with parents and teachers are deeply personal and definitive. Social and economic contexts are broader and harder to quantify.

Key individuals in public life have also had a marked impact on American childhood. These 18 new essays examine the influence of pivotal figures in the culture of 20th and 21st century childhood and child-rearing, from Benjamin Spock and Walt Disney to Ruth Handler, Barbie's inventor, and Ernest Thompson Seton, founder of the Boy Scouts of America.

Author Biography

Kathy Merlock Jackson is a professor of media and communication at Virginia Wesleyan University, where she teaches courses in media studies and children's culture. She is the author of over a hundred articles, chapters, and reviews and has published fourteen books. She is a former editor of The Journal of American Culture and a past president of the Popular Culture Association. Mark I. West is the former chair of the English department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has written or edited twenty-five books on children's literature and culture and is a former president of the Children's Literature Association.