Toys, Consumption, and Middle-class Childhood in Imperial Germany, 1871-1918
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1871
A01=Bryan Ganaway
Author_Bryan Ganaway
Category=GTM
Category=JBSF1
Category=JH
Category=JN
Category=NHD
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eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Product details
- ISBN 9783039115488
- Weight: 430g
- Dimensions: 150 x 220mm
- Publication Date: 16 Apr 2009
- Publisher: Verlag Peter Lang
- Publication City/Country: CH
- Product Form: Paperback
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Drawing on a variety of techniques from history, anthropology and literary criticism the author argues toy consumption helped adults negotiate the transmission of middle-class values regarding modernity, technology, gender roles and nationalism to their children. Practices of consumption permitted self-fashioning from above and below; women used their control over childhood to insert themselves into political debates about the future shape of the nation at a time when they lacked the vote. Although the project to build a middle-class utopia via shopping never succeeded, millions of Germans happily bought toys at Christmas and birthdays showing their faith in the ability of modern society to make the world a better place. To understand why ordinary consumers made these choices, the book draws on a variety of sources including periodicals, trade journals, advertisements, pedagogical literature, memoirs, and toys.
The Author: Bryan Ganaway received his Ph.D. in modern European history from the University of Illinois in 2003. He is currently a visiting assistant professor at the College of Charleston. He has received Fulbright and DAAD grants and published in the Edinburgh German Yearbook and the Journal of Social History.
