Cross not only gives the reader a succinct history of toys in America, but also examines the reasons for the sea change that has taken place in the toy industry in recent years. In that way, they were Bruegelesque. More recently, Mr. Cross argues, the game has changed. Contemporary toys, particularly for boys, including figures like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers and video games like Virtual Fighter and Quake, encourage a fantasy world independent of adult influence and adult rationality, a world with its own languages, rules and culture.
Adults are irrelevant as either players or models.
If the once modest toy is beginning to be displaced from its previously immodest spot in the child's heart, this history of toys should gain a place in adult consciousness. It, too, is a tool, directing us toward a new-style education in what's important in our particular age of confusion presided over by the entertainment conglomerate, that voice of modern authority. With the help of Gary Cross, we can now take a long look at history and give some thought to how to deal with our children's new transnational babysitters. As Mr. Cross shows in his enjoyable history, the origins of this trend are old. As Cross makes clear, the story of toys is the story of parenting, of the way we view our children and the kind of adults we hope they will become.