- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (April 29 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375401202
- ISBN-13: 978-0375401206
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 16.8 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 789 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,101,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Rather than a social history of how Americans have raised their children, Hulbert (The Interior Castle: The Art and Life of Jean Stafford) offers an intellectual history of how children and parents have been studied in modern America. Here is the story of how Drs. Hall and Holt begat Drs. Gesell and Watson, who begat Dr. Spock and even Dr. Seuss, and how they in turn spawned an entire mini-industry of parenting experts. In spite of changes in terms or variations in thematic concerns, each generation of "experts" has been consistently bipolar, Hulbert finds: the "hard," parent-centered theorists fond of authority and discipline versus the "soft," child-centered theorists preaching love, bonding and liberty. With a flair for wordplay (paraphrasing Gesell's advice to parents to "walk-and speak-ever so softly, and carry a big chart") and a taste for irony (almost all the experts suffered from "mother's boy syndrome"), Hulbert documents the upbringings of the experts themselves, the fluctuations in their advice and the details of their downfalls. While few of these experts were as scientific as they claimed, they probably have managed to further parents' understanding of child development somewhat, admits Hulbert. The irony here-or perhaps it's a saving grace-is that parents, while eager for advice, rarely seem to have used it. This provocative and informative study is a model of lay scholarship. 15 photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Why a century of advice has failed.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Relationship is more then me or my child,
By Sam "Sam The Survivor" (the real world) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children (Hardcover)
Child development or "raising" is not something that is done either by child (The Nature) *alone*, or by parent (The Nurture/er) *alone*, we are just parts. The proverbial "whole" is our "relationship", our connection. Most experts are in fact as miss Hulbert suggests "part-centered" (either "soft", i.e. child-centered or "hard", i.e. parent-centered). But there are "whole-centered", "relationship-centered", or as Lawrence Cohen would say "connection-centered" experts, too, one of them being himself. If you are interested in transcending all parts, check his Playful Parenting book where he transcends *both* permissiveness (Child or Nature viewed as privileged part) and authoritarianism (Parent or Nurture viewed as privileged part) by viewing our Relationship as a "Whole_Without_Privileged_Parts" through 'Playful Parenting' instead. Your relationship with your child/ren will never be the same.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Centered on the experts, not the advise or children,
By Suzanne Amara (MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children (Hardcover)
Perhaps my very mixed feelings about this book came from unmet expectations. I thought it would be a book about the history of the actual advise given American parents---how advise about such issues as toilet training, sleep and eating have changed over the years, and how this affected parents. However, the book was actually much more about the experts themselves---THEIR childhoods, education, marital problems, academic careers, etc. This might be interesting to some, but it wasn't to me for the most part. The book had a feel of an insider sort of expose---written for those in the academic world. Children were mentioned very little, except if they happened to be the children of the experts themselves. There was much delving into the psychological history of each expert, but I found that at times I had a very vague idea what the experts actually advised! For example, Hall, an early expert, had his life opened for scrutiny, but I would be hard pressed to explain what his child care views were. The writing was scholary and confident, but in no way personal---the author's children or her own views are not mentioned. So I guess I would just advice that you know what you want to read about before buying this book---It might be just what you are looking for, but it might be far from what you are looking for.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Only a beginning,
By "rossm001" (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children (Hardcover)
Our parent education book group agrees that advice-giving to parents has been complex and inconsistent. However, identifying an "odd couple" (experts who give contradictory advice) for each period of the century is arbitrary, contrived, misleading and inappropriate. Hulbert mentions that she selected advice givers who had spoken at national conferences. Otherwise, she give us little information about her biases or about the criteria she used to select individuals highlighted. Why did she choose L. Emmett Holt (not a well-known individual) and G. Stanley Hall (who focused primarily on adolescents)? The protaganist format meant that in the recent years, advice-giving "giants" such asThomas Gordon, Hiam Ginott, Jean Piaget, B.F. Skinner, Erik Erikson, and Rudolph Dreikurs barely receive mention. A history book on parent advice IS needed, not only for scholars, but also for parents to understand their own upbringing. This book barely begins to fill the need.
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