Kriste Lindenmeyer shows that the experiences of depression-era children help us understand the course of the 1930s as well as the history of American childhood. For the first time, she notes, federal policy extended childhood dependence through the teen years while cultural changes reinforced this ideal of modern childhood. In all, the thirties experience worked to confer greater identity on American children, and Ms. Lindenmeyer's story provides essential background for understanding the legacy of those men and women whom Tom Brokaw has called America's greatest generation.
The Greatest Generation Grows up: American Childhood in the 1930's FROM THE PUBLISHER "In The Greatest Generation Grows Up, Kriste Lindenmeyer tells the story behind the roots of a famous generation. Here is an account of how children grew up in the 1930s, showing how American childhood through the teen years became formalized as an ideal by government policy, reinforced by cultural changes." In all, the thirties experience worked to confer greater identity on American children, and Ms. Lindenmeyer's story provides essential background for understanding the origins of those men and women whom Tom Brokaw has called "America's greatest generation."
FROM THE CRITICS The Midwest Book Review "Anyone studying children's rights or American childhood will want to make Lindenmeyer's book part of their reading." WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING Steven Mintz "Combining lucid prose with telling anecdotes and compelling analysis, Kriste Lindenmeyer explains why the 1930s was a crucial watershed in the history of childhood. A fascinating and insightful book." — author of Huck¿¿¿s Raft: A History of American Childhood, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of History, University of Houston Roger Daniels "Kriste Lindenmeyer, one of our most perceptive historians of childhood, acutely dissects the conceptions and misconceptions that have grown up about them. Our picture of them and their times will never be quite the same again." — author of Not Like Us: Immigrants and Minorities in America, 1890-1924, Charles Phelps Taft Professor Emeritus of History,
University of Cincinnati Harvey J. Graff "She revises our understanding-and reminds us of the value-and the complications-of generational histories." — author of Conflicting Paths: Growing Up in America, Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies & Professor of English and History, Ohio State University George Cohen "Thought-provoking." — Booklist Jeanette Kieth "Entertaining as well as thought-provoking. This book will be useful not only to scholars, but also to all who wish to understand the grass-roots impact of the Depression and New Deal on American families-an impact that reverberates through the generations to the present day." — author of Rich Man¿¿¿s War, Poor Man¿¿¿s Fight, Professor of History, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Joe Hawes "A splendid little book! An amazing amount of information-masterful synthesis-no student of children and youth and the 1930s can afford to be without it." — editor of a two-volume Encyclopedia of American Family History, Professor of History at the University of Memphis, immediate past President of the Society for the History of Children and Youth
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