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Playing with history : American identities and children's consumer culture
\"Since the advent of the American toy industry, children's cultural products have attempted to teach and sell ideas of American identity. By examining cultural products geared towards teaching children American identity, Playing With History highlights the changes and constancies in depictions of the American story and ideals of citizenship over the last one hundred years. The book examines political and ideological messages sold to children throughout the twentieth century, tracing the messages conveyed by racist toy banks, early governmental interventions meant to protect the toy industry, infences and pressures surrounding Cold War stories of the western frontier, and the fractures visible in the American story at a mid-century history themed amusement park. This engaging analysis culminates in a look at the successes and limitations of the American Girl Company empire\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Designing the Creative Child
The postwar American stereotypes of suburban sameness, traditional gender roles, and educational conservatism have masked an alternate self-image tailor-made for the Cold War. The creative child, an idealized future citizen, was the darling of baby boom parents, psychologists, marketers, and designers who saw in the next generation promise that appeared to answer the most pressing worries of the age. Designing the Creative Child reveals how a postwar cult of childhood creativity developed and continues to this day. Exploring how the idea of children as imaginative and naturally creative was constructed, disseminated, and consumed in the United States after World War II, Amy F. Ogata argues that educational toys, playgrounds, small middle-class houses, new schools, and children's museums were designed to cultivate imagination in a growing cohort of baby boom children. Enthusiasm for encouraging creativity in children countered Cold War fears of failing competitiveness and the postwar critique of social conformity, making creativity an emblem of national revitalization. Ogata describes how a historically rooted belief in children's capacity for independent thinking was transformed from an elite concern of the interwar years to a fully consumable and aspirational ideal that persists today. From building blocks to Gumby, playhouses to Playskool trains, Creative Playthings to the Eames House of Cards, Crayola fingerpaint to children's museums, material goods and spaces shaped a popular understanding of creativity, and Designing the Creative Child demonstrates how this notion has been woven into the fabric of American culture.
eBook
MoneyWatch Report
Home Depot wants to stretch Black Friday out with staggered deals this holiday season. The home improvement chain says it will offer customers Black Friday discounts for two months beginning in early November through December. The retailer previously announced it will be closed the day after Thanksgiving this year.
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