The Evolution of American Childhood

Why have historians often overlooked childhood despite its significance in shaping culture and political views? How did trends in family demographics and child-raising change across the country as new research became popular or new technology became widely adopted?  

Paula S. Fass is an emerita professor of history at UC Berkeley and also the author of a number of books. Her latest books are Inheriting the Holocaust: A Second-Generation Memoir, Children of a New World: Society, Culture, and Globalization, and Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America.

Greg and Paula discuss how American childhood has evolved distinctly due to factors like land availability, mother's roles, and the education system. They explore the impact of historical figures like Locke, Rousseau, and de Tocqueville and how post-WWII global changes influenced childhood. The conversation also touches on contemporary parental practices, the effects of smaller family sizes, and whether the unique characteristics of American childhood are fading in the modern world.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

How distinctive has American childhood actually been?

06:42: We in the United States, becoming aware of the fact that we're no longer so unique, have become much more conscious about not giving our children as much leeway as we used to have. What I call the managed child, helicoptering, and a variety of things like that have now become a very common American experience, precisely because we're worried that the kind of mobility—both geographic and social—and,  as a result, economic—that we used to have is now no longer a given. We are competing in a very different world than we were competing with before. And so trying to give our children a leg up, and the fear that, in fact, their mobility will be downward mobility, has led American parents to organize their children's lives much more than they have ever before.

The pressures of parenting are driving a sharp decline in birth rates in the U.S

55:11: We are now in a situation where parenting is so fraught that young people just don't want to do it. And given effective contraception, the birth rate has declined radically. 

On the intersection between politics, economics and they way children are raised in America

57:58: One of the realities that we talked about at the very beginning is the intersection between politics and economics and the way children are brought up. And certainly, the way American children were brought up in the 19th century and even in the 20th century led to an emphasis on  entrepreneurial innovative spirit. that the American economy has prided itself on. And it's not clear to me—I'm not an economic historian, and I'm not an economist—whether we are any longer providing children with the kind of home structures that would pivot them into those struggles. It is certainly possible that we've come to the point where what we prided ourselves on as Americans will no longer be the dominant form of American enterprise and American life. Yes, it's possible. And that would be related to childhood.

Can heightened awareness of children's needs lead to both overindulgence and overcontrol?

49:57: I won't describe that as an overindulgence. It is different than what happened in the 19th century, where there was not that much room for worrying so much about what your children were doing, worrying about what kinds of things they were playing with, and making sure they had appropriate reading material. Again, I won't call that overindulgence. Child consciousness, awareness of what you think children might need—yes. At the same time, that can lead to, and often does lead to, overcontrol bec

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

• Ulysses S. Grant - Wikipedia
• Lenore Skenazy
• Adam Gurowski
• Claudia Goldin
• Benjamin Spock
• John B. Watson
• United States Children's Bureau
• Amy Chua

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at UC Berkeley
• Wikipedia Profile

Her Work:

• Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America
• Children of a New World: Society, Culture, and Globalization
• The Routledge History of Childhood in the Western World (Routledge Histories)
• Inheriting the Holocaust: A Second-Generation Memoir
• The End of American Childhood: A History of Parenting from Life on the Frontier to the Managed Child