Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Child-Rearing in America

By Peter N. Stearns

Book Overview

An examination into the history of modern parenting

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw a dramatic shift in the role of children in American society and families. No longer necessary for labor, children became economic liabilities and twentieth-century parents exhibited a new level of anxiety concerning the welfare of their children and their own ability to parent effectively. What caused this shift in the ways parenting and childhood were experienced and perceived? Why, at a time of relative ease and prosperity, do parents continue to grapple with uncertainty and with unreasonable expectations of both themselves and their children?

Peter N. Stearns explains this phenomenon by examining the new issues the twentieth century brought to bear on families. Surveying popular media, "expert" childrearing manuals, and newspapers and journals published throughout the century, Stearns shows how schooling, physical and emotional vulnerability, and the rise in influence of commercialism became primary concerns for parents. The result, Stearns shows, is that contemporary parents have come to believe that they are participating in a culture of neglect and diminishing standards. Anxious Parents: A Modern History of Childrearing in America shows the reasons for this belief through an historic examination of modern parenting.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814798497
• ISBN13: 9780814798492
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Child is Bother to the Man (and Woman)

This is a brief and wonderful account of how American parents came to be so anxious that fretfulness often seems the predominant state in which we live. (The section called "I'm Bored" is worth the price alone.) It's also reassuring; contrary to the scare-mongering of experts and the media, the kids nowadays are all right. Everyone who has children ought to read this sensible and illuminating work; it's worth 100 times its weight in parenting advice books.