Course description
HIST 2231 explores the lived experiences of children and youth in different times and places in the West, focusing in particular on North America from the early period of resettlement and colonization to the present day.
Major themes include: changing ideas about childhood and adolescence; the intersection of social class, religion, gender, ethnocultural identity, and ability with children鈥檚 experiences; the legal and institutional regulation of children and childhood; children, families and the worlds of work; children's popular and material culture; contemporary childhood and the diversity of family lives and experiences.
Course content
A sample course outline would include the following topics.
Note: Content may vary according to the instructor鈥檚 selection of topics.
- Introduction: Encountering the Histories of Childhood
- Children and Families in Pre-Industrial Societies
- Innocents and Savages: Children in the Age of Enlightenment
- The Age of the Nursery: Middle Class Families, Middle-Class Childhood
- Labouring Children, Working Families and Apprenticeships
- 鈥淪treet Arabs鈥 and Orphans: Children without Families
- Imperialism, Colonialism and the Cultures of Childhood
- Children and the City: The Age of Reform
- Flappers and Flaming Youth: The 鈥淕irl Problem鈥 and The 鈥淏oy Problem鈥
- Suburbs and the Postwar Reconstruction of the Family
- Advising Parents: Experts and the Care of Children
- Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty: The Postwar World and Challenges to Authority
- The Cute and the Cool: Children鈥檚 Popular Culture in North America
- Children and Families in a Global World
Learning activities
Classroom instruction will include both lectures and seminar discussions. Lectures will provide instruction on weekly topics with opportunities for student inquiry and discussion. Seminars will encourage active class participation in the analysis of assigned primary and secondary readings. Classroom instruction may also include facilitation of student-led projects,