I found this book to be very interesting. it raised issues about childhood that i have never concidered and factors in childhood that i would not have attributed to the change in childhood. With that said, I often found myself telling the author that he had already told the reader certian points. I found the book repetive. One part of the book that I found especially interesting was the section on religious conversion.
This was one of those sections that i had never concidered a part of childhood. THe author explains his point fairly well but lacks sufficiant examples. Graff uses one or two examples for each of his "paths," but i don't think they are perticularly helpful. It would seem to me that there would be differant cases that the author could use to prove his points better. He uses many examples but only two in the conversion section. Perhaps these are the only cases that prove his points. using one or two example makes the book seem thin and eaisly debatable.
The second thing that caught my attention was in the conclusion of the book. The effects of social programs on childhood was interesting. I, however dissagreed with this and many other aspects of the book. Of course social programs changed the course of childhood but without them it would have changed anyhow. HE address this with more imformation that most readers already know. HE falls back on his agruements of race, class and gender. i know that. I know that all thses factors have to do with childhood. I think a section on how social programs changed a perticular group would have been insightful. He needs more comparison between older and younger generations. That would have helped to prove his points.
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