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Civilizing the Child
Discourses of Race, Nation, and Child Welfare in America
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2013
Summary
In Civilizing the Child: Discourses of Race, Nation, and Child Welfare in America, Katherine S. Bullard analyzes the discourse of child welfare advocates who argued for the notion of a racialized ideal child. This ideal child, limited to white, often native-born children, was at the center of arguments for material support to children and education for their parents. This book illuminates important limitations in the Progressive approach to social welfare and helps to explain the current dearth of support for poor children.
Civilizing the Child tracks the growing social concern with children in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The author uses seminal figures and institutions to look at the origins of the welfare state. Chapters focus on Charles Loring Brace, Jacob Riis, residents of the Hull House Settlement, and the staff of U.S. Children’s Bureau, analyzing their work to unpack the assumptions about American identity that made certain children belong and others remain outsiders. Bullard traces the ways in which child welfare advocates used racialized language and emphasized the “civilizing mission” to argue for support of white native-born children. This language focused on the future citizenship of some children as an argument for their support and protection.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2013
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-7898-0
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-7899-7
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
149
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 8
1 Settling the Waifs No access Pages 9 - 40
2 Jacob Riis, Slum Tourism, and Citizenship No access Pages 41 - 74
3 Immigrant Neighborhoods, Settlement Houses, and the Civilizing Mission No access Pages 75 - 100
4 The Rights of American Children No access Pages 101 - 128
