Children’s Voices from the Past: New Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood)

This book explores a central methodological issue at the heart of studies of the histories of children and childhood. It questions how we understand the perspectives of children in the past, and not just those of the adults who often defined and constrained the parameters of youthful lives. Drawing on a range of different sources, including institutional records, interviews, artwork, diaries, letters, memoirs, and objects, this interdisciplinary volume uncovers the voices of historical children, and discusses the challenges of situating these voices, and interpreting juvenile agency and desire. Divided into four sections, the book considers children's voices in different types of historical records, examining children's letters and correspondence, as well as multimedia texts such as film, advertising and art, along with oral histories, and institutional archives.-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-xix Hearing Children’s Voices: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges (Nell Musgrove, Carla Pascoe Leahy, Kristine Moruzi)....Pages 1-25 Front Matter ....Pages 27-27 Children’s Voices in the Boy’s Own Paper and the Girl’s Own Paper, 1880–1900 (Shih-Wen Sue Chen, Kristine Moruzi)....Pages 29-52 Where ‘Taniwha’ Met ‘Colonial Girl’: The Social Uses of the Nom de Plume in New Zealand Youth Correspondence Pages, 1880–1920 (Anna Gilderdale)....Pages 53-84 “Dear Monsieur Administrator”: Student Writing and the Question of “Voice” in Senegal, 1890s–1910s (Kelly Duke Bryant)....Pages 85-105 “Str[a]ight from My Heart”: Black Lives, Affective Citizenship, and 1960s American Politics (Susan Eckelmann Berghel)....Pages 107-134 Front Matter ....Pages 135-135 Children’s Art: Histories and Cultural Meanings of Creative Expression by Displaced Children (Mary Tomsic)....Pages 137-158 Karen B., and Indigenous Girlhood on the Prairies: Disrupting the Images of Indigenous Children in Adoption Advertising in North America (Allyson Stevenson)....Pages 159-190 ‘Share the Shame’: Curating the Child’s Voice in Mortified Nation! (Kate Douglas)....Pages 191-207 Front Matter ....Pages 209-209 Oral Histories and Enlightened Witnessing (Deidre Michell)....Pages 211-231 “Basically You Were Either a Mainstream Sort of Person or You Went to the Leadmill and the Limit”: Understanding Post-War British Youth Culture Through Oral History (Sarah Kenny)....Pages 233-259 Front Matter ....Pages 261-261 Muffled Voices: Recovering Children’s Voices from England’s Social Margins (Greg T. Smith)....Pages 263-283 Revolutionary Successors: Deviant Children and Youth in the PRC, 1959–1964 (Melissa A. Brzycki)....Pages 285-304 Lost and Found: Counter-Narratives of Dis/Located Children (Frank Golding, Jacqueline Z. Wilson)....Pages 305-329 Back Matter ....Pages 331-342