Children and War: A Historical Anthology

Front Cover
James Marten
NYU Press, Aug 24, 2002 - Family & Relationships - 313 pages

"This anthology is breathtaking in its geographic and temporal sweep."—Canadian Journal of History
The American media has recently "discovered" children's experiences in present-day wars. A week-long series on the plight of child soldiers in Africa and Latin America was published in Newsday and newspapers have decried the U.S. government's reluctance to sign a United Nations treaty outlawing the use of under-age soldiers. These and numerous other stories and programs have shown that the number of children impacted by war as victims, casualties, and participants has mounted drastically during the last few decades.
Although the scale on which children are affected by war may be greater today than at any time since the world wars of the twentieth century, children have been a part of conflict since the beginning of warfare. Children and War shows that boys and girls have routinely contributed to home front war efforts, armies have accepted under-aged soldiers for centuries, and war-time experiences have always affected the ways in which grown-up children of war perceive themselves and their societies.
The essays in this collection range from explorations of childhood during the American Revolution and of the writings of free black children during the Civil War to children's home front war efforts during World War II, representations of war and defeat in Japanese children's magazines, and growing up in war-torn Liberia. Children and War provides a historical context for two centuries of children's multi-faceted involvement with war.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
Memory and Meaning
11
1 Childhood Memory and the American Revolution
15
2 After the War I Am Going to Put Myself a Sailor
26
Mass Media Child Psychology and theStruggle for Russias Future during the First World War
38
4 Imagining Anzac
50
Jewish Children and theKindertransports during the Holocaust
63
6 Mama Are We Going to Die? Americas ChildrenConfront the Cuban Missile Crisis
75
13 The Antifascist Narrative
172
14 Humanitarian Sympathy for Children in Times ofWar and the History of Childrens Rights 19191959
184
Actors and Victims
201
15 These Unfortunate Children
205
16 Children and the New Zealand Wars
216
17 Stolen Generations and Vanishing Indians
227
18 Baptized in Blood
242
19 Too Young for a Uniform
254

7 Bereavement in a War Zone
87
Lessons and Literature
99
8 Representations of War and Martial Heroes in EnglishElementary School Reading and Rituals 18851914
103
9 The Child in the Flying Machine
116
10 World Friendship
135
11 Ghosts and the Machine
147
12 Japanese Children and the Culture of DeathJanuaryAugust 1945
160
20 Against Their Will
266
21 Innocent Victims and Heroic Defenders
279
Epilogue
291
Bibliography
295
Contributors
303
Index
309
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

James Marten is Professor and Chair of the History Department at Marquette University. He is author or editor of more than a dozen books including The Children’s Civil War and four NYU Press books: Children and War: A Historical Anthology; Children in Colonial America; Children and Youth in a New Nation; and Children and Youth during the Civil War Era.