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.

This much-needed volume is an edited collection of primary sources that document the history of bilingual education in U.S. public schools during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Part I of the volume examines the development of dual-language programs for immigrants, colonized Mexicans, and Native Americans during the nineteenth century. Part II considers the attacks on bilingual education during the Progressive-era drive for an English-only curriculum and during the First World War. Part III explores the resurgence of bilingual activities, particularly among Spanish speakers and Native Americans, during the interwar period and details the rise of the federal government's involvement in bilingual instruction during the post-WWII decades. Part IV of the volume examines the recent campaigns against bilingual education and explores dual-language practices in today's classrooms. A compilation of school reports, letters, government documents, and other primary sources, this volume provides rich insights into the history of this very contentious educational policy and practice and will be of great interest to historians and language scholars, as well as to educational practitioners and policymakers.