Utilizing new historicist, feminist, and cultural studies critiques, these essays by leading scholars provide new perspectives on early children's literary texts. The essays are divided into four parts: Part 1 critiques the rise of children's literature throughout the eighteenth-century, Part 2 focuses on the rise of the female educator and the 'rational dames', Part 3 contains three essays on the politics of pedagogy and the child, Part 4 is a detailed examination of the work of children's literature scholar Mitzi Myers (1939-2001). Scholars of children's literature, literary history, and gender studies will find this volume very illuminating.