num_pages: 200
description: By studying children's clothing and furniture, Karin Calvert surveys American conceptions of childhood over the course of 300 years. She argues that parents have consistently tried to mold their offspring into the prevailing notion of childhood, and identifies three distinct eras in American parenting, in which children have been seen in turn as "inchoate adults", "natural creatures", and "innocent nestlings."
language: English
title: Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood, 1600-1900
publisher: Northeastern