Customer Reviews

The Greatest Generation Grows Up: American Childhood in the 1930s (American Childhoods Series)

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Kriste Lindenmeyer has done us a wonderful favor by giving us a portrait of childhood in 1930's America. She looks at many different facets of youth during these turbulent years including child labor, education, consumerism, and how the New Deal affected these youngsters.

Lindenmeyer's book is well written and is an enjoyable read. Her prose is clear & her arguments consise and well thought out. After reading this book, it is easy to see why the decade of the 30's changed childhood forever in America. Before this ten year span, education was of secondary importance, and children were not considered consumers. During the 30's, education became of prime importance to so many, youngsters were seen as consumers that could spark economic growth, and children were removed from the most oppressive labor conditions (i.e. manufacturing & mining).

The author's concluding chapter on the New Deal really struck me as important - it helped me to see where the FDR administration really did try to help the youth of America in addition to the adults who were so negatively impacted by the Great Depression. Formation of the EDC (Emergency Day Centers) for care of toddlers, the NYA (National Youth Administration) to promote education by providing stipends for work, and the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) with its abolition of child labor in most industries were all examples of positive impacts made by the New Deal for America's youth.

She borrows Tom Brokaw's phrase "The Greatest Generation" in describing these youngsters, because most men that went off to war in the 1940's were reared during this economic crisis. A very apt title for very important book.

American childhood in the 1930s became a government policy ideal which was reinforced by cultural changes during the Great Depression, and represented the first period of time in which the federal government provided a legal definition of childhood dependency as extending from birth through age seventeen. Any studying children's rights or American childhood will want to make The Greatest Generation Grows Up: American Childhood In The 1930s a part of their reading reference collection: it details social and political forces which shaped, defined and created new interpretations of childhood and dependency.