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Books > History > American history
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Childhood on the Farm - Work, Play, and Coming of Age in the Midwest (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,122
Discovery Miles 11 220
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Childhood on the Farm - Work, Play, and Coming of Age in the Midwest (Paperback)
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As the United States transformed itself from an agricultural to an
industrial nation, thousands of young people left farm homes for
life in the big city. But even by 1920 the nation’s heartland
remained predominantly rural and most children in the region were
still raised on farms. Pamela Riney-Kehrberg retells their stories,
offering glimpses—both nostalgic and realistic—of a bygone
era.As Riney-Kehrberg shows, the experiences of most farm children
continued to reflect the traditions of family life and labor,
albeit in an age when middle-class urban Americans were beginning
to redefine childhood as a time reserved for education and play.
She draws upon a wealth of primary sources—not only memoirs and
diaries but also census data—to create a vivid portrait of
midwestern farm childhood from the early post-Civil War period
through the Progressive Era growing pains of industrialization.
Those personal accounts resurrect the essential experience of
children’s work, play, education, family relations, and coming of
age from their own perspectives. Steering a middle path between the
myth of wholesome farm life and the reality of work that was often
extremely dangerous, Riney-Kehrberg shows both the best and the
worst that a rural upbringing had to offer midwestern youth a time
before mechanization forever changed the rural scene and radio
broke the spell of isolation. Down on the farm, truancy was not
uncommon and chores were shared across genders. Yet farm children
managed to indulge in inventive play—much of it homemade—to
supplement store-bought toys and to get through the long spells
between circuses. Filled with insightful personal stories and
graced with dozens of highly evocative period photos, Childhood on
the Farm is the only general history of midwestern farm children to
use narratives written by the children themselves, giving a fresh
voice to these forgotten years. Theirs was a way of life that was
disappearing even as they lived it, and this book offers new
insight into why, even if many rural youngsters became urban and
suburban adults, they always maintained some affection for the
farm.
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