America's Children: Picturing Childhood from Early America to the Present

by Kathleen Thompson and Hilary Mac Austin

Illuminating a vital but all too often neglected part of our nation's past, America's Children is a comprehensive print documentary of children in the United States, the first visual history of its kind. Kathleen Thompson and Hilary Mac Austin explore childhood over four centuries of American life, portraying the children of our past and present through images from museums and archives all over the country as well as from their own extensive collection...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039305182X
• ISBN13: 9780393051827
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 3.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 9.2" x 12.5"

Customer Reviews

I couldn't put it down

When I first looked through this book. I was captivated by the variety of people and settings. Boys and girls of different races and ethnicities, playing, learning, fighting, working, struggling, hoping. I couldn't put the book down. I had to keep looking, to see who and what would appear on the next page.I trust anyone would have the same reaction. But don't stop there with the photographs. This is much more than a photo album. Take the time to read the captions, the authors' commentary, and most of all, the words (letters, diary entries, conversations, etc.) of the children themselves. You won't be disappointed. Rather, you may find, like I did, that the photographs become even more real, more poignant, more personal, and more moving than they did at first glance. And, once again, you won't be able to put them down. Whatever your notions and conceptions of childhood and of United States history and policy, this book will certainly broaden your understanding, intellectually and emotionally, of both.