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Imaginary Citizens
Courtney Weikle-Mills
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Description for Imaginary Citizens
Courtney Weikle-Mills discusses such characters as Goody Two-Shoes, Ichabod Crane, and Tom Sawyer in terms of how they reflect these conflicting ideals. Num Pages: 280 pages, 9, 9 black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: 1KBB; 2AB; DSY; HBJK. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 229 x 152 x 23. Weight in Grams: 499.
From the colonial period to the end of the Civil War, children's books taught young Americans how to be good citizens and gave them the freedom, autonomy, and possibility to imagine themselves as such, despite the actual limitations of the law concerning child citizenship. "Imaginary Citizens" argues that the origin and evolution of the concept of citizenship in the United States centrally involved struggles over the meaning and boundaries of childhood. Children were thought of as more than witnesses to American history and governance - they were representatives of "the people" in general. Early on, the parent-child relationship was used as an analogy for the relationship between England and America, and later, the president was equated to a father and the people to his children. There was a backlash, however. In order to contest the patriarchal idea that all individuals owed child like submission to their rulers, Americans looked to new theories of human development that limited political responsibility to those with a mature ability to reason. Yet Americans also based their concept of citizenship on the idea that all people are free and accountable at every age. Courtney Weikle-Mills discusses such characters as Goody Two-Shoes, Ichabod Crane, and Tom Sawyer in terms of how they reflect these conflicting ideals.
Product Details
Publication date
2013
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press United States
Number of pages
280
Condition
New
Number of Pages
280
Format
Hardback
Place of Publication
Baltimore, MD, United States
ISBN
9781421407210
SKU
V9781421407210
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-32
About Courtney Weikle-Mills
Courtney Weikle-Mills is an assistant professor of literature at the University of Pittsburgh.
Reviews for Imaginary Citizens
This tightly argued and convincing book reflects the extraordinary ambiguity that has almost always surfaced in thinking and writing for and about children, and it shows the extent to which the study of history and literature can inform each other.
James Marten Journal of American History Well researched and engaging, filled with both factual information and insightful analysis.
Chris Nesmith Children's Literature Association Quarterly This book is impressive for its breadth of scholarship, and it should stimulate discussion among its intended audience of academics and advanced undergraduates about children and childhood as metaphors for how citizenship was, and can be, defined.
Gail Schmunk Murray New England Quarterly Weikle-Mills provides a fascinating new way to look at American conceptions of citizenship... Historians of childhood will find this book useful, as will anyone who wants to understand the changing position of children and the concept of responsible citizenship.
Nancy Hathaway Steenburg American Historical Review The main strengths of Imaginary Citizens are its clarity of expression, explicit definition of terms, and easy interaction with multiple fields, including children's literature, early American literary, religious and political studies. The Year's Work in English Studies Weikle-Mills's rich investigation of connections between child readers and political empowerment significantly contributes to both the study of children's literature and the study of American social and political history.
Thomas Fair Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature
James Marten Journal of American History Well researched and engaging, filled with both factual information and insightful analysis.
Chris Nesmith Children's Literature Association Quarterly This book is impressive for its breadth of scholarship, and it should stimulate discussion among its intended audience of academics and advanced undergraduates about children and childhood as metaphors for how citizenship was, and can be, defined.
Gail Schmunk Murray New England Quarterly Weikle-Mills provides a fascinating new way to look at American conceptions of citizenship... Historians of childhood will find this book useful, as will anyone who wants to understand the changing position of children and the concept of responsible citizenship.
Nancy Hathaway Steenburg American Historical Review The main strengths of Imaginary Citizens are its clarity of expression, explicit definition of terms, and easy interaction with multiple fields, including children's literature, early American literary, religious and political studies. The Year's Work in English Studies Weikle-Mills's rich investigation of connections between child readers and political empowerment significantly contributes to both the study of children's literature and the study of American social and political history.
Thomas Fair Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature