Designing the Creative Child: Playthings and Places in Midcentury America Contributor(s): Ogata, Amy F. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0816679614 ISBN-13: 9780816679614 Publisher: University of Minnesota Press OUR PRICE: $34.60 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2013 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Architecture | History - Contemporary (1945 -) - History | United States - 20th Century - Social Science | Children's Studies |
Dewey: 155.413 |
LCCN: 2012050732 |
Series: Architecture, Landscape and American Culture |
Physical Information: 0.69" H x 7.12" W x 8.95" (1.57 lbs) 320 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description:
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. |