Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination
Regular price
€43.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
A01=David M. Rosen
adolescents
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Andrew Jackson
anthropology
Author_David M. Rosen
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JBSP1
Category=JFSP1
Category=JWT
child soldiers
childhood
childhood studies
childhood vulnerability
children
children's studies
Civil War
combat
COP=United States
culture
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
drummer boys
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Format=BC
Format_Paperback
history
human rights
human rights organizations
infantry
Language_English
military
military history
military recruitment
NJ
non-fiction
nonfiction
PA=Available
poli sci
political science
pop culture
popular culture
pre-adolescents
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
rutgers
rutgers university
rutgers university press
Sierra Leone
SN=Series in Childhood Studies
social science
sociology
softlaunch
Sudan
violence in society
warfare
world history
world war ii
world war two
WWII
Product details
- ISBN 9780813563701
- Format: Paperback
- Weight: 399g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 12 Oct 2015
- Publisher: Rutgers University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
When we hear the term “child soldiers,” most Americans imagine innocent victims roped into bloody conflicts in distant war-torn lands like Sudan and Sierra Leone. Yet our own history is filled with examples of children involved in warfare-from adolescent prisoner of war Andrew Jackson to Civil War drummer boys-who were once viewed as symbols of national pride rather than signs of human degradation.
In this daring new study, anthropologist David M. Rosen investigates why our cultural perception of the child soldier has changed so radically over the past two centuries. Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination reveals how Western conceptions of childhood as a uniquely vulnerable and innocent state are a relatively recent invention. Furthermore, Rosen offers an illuminating history of how human rights organizations drew upon these sentiments to create the very term “child soldier,” which they presented as the embodiment of war’s human cost.
Filled with shocking historical accounts and facts-and revealing the reasons why one cannot spell “infantry” without “infant”-Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination seeks to shake us out of our pervasive historical amnesia. It challenges us to stop looking at child soldiers through a biased set of idealized assumptions about childhood, so that we can better address the realities of adolescents and pre-adolescents in combat. Presenting informative facts while examining fictional representations of the child soldier in popular culture, this book is both eye-opening and thought-provoking.
In this daring new study, anthropologist David M. Rosen investigates why our cultural perception of the child soldier has changed so radically over the past two centuries. Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination reveals how Western conceptions of childhood as a uniquely vulnerable and innocent state are a relatively recent invention. Furthermore, Rosen offers an illuminating history of how human rights organizations drew upon these sentiments to create the very term “child soldier,” which they presented as the embodiment of war’s human cost.
Filled with shocking historical accounts and facts-and revealing the reasons why one cannot spell “infantry” without “infant”-Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination seeks to shake us out of our pervasive historical amnesia. It challenges us to stop looking at child soldiers through a biased set of idealized assumptions about childhood, so that we can better address the realities of adolescents and pre-adolescents in combat. Presenting informative facts while examining fictional representations of the child soldier in popular culture, this book is both eye-opening and thought-provoking.
DAVID M. ROSEN is a professor of anthropology and law at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. He is the author of Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism (Rutgers University Press) and Child Soldiers: A Reference Handbook.
