Children of the City At Work and At Play

by Nasaw, David

• ISBN13: 9780195040159
• ISBN10: 0195040155
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1986-05-22
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The turn of the century was a time of explosive growth for American cities, a time of nascent hopes and apparently limitless possibilities. In Children of the City, David Nasaw re-creates this period in our social history from the vantage point of the children who grew up then. Drawing on hundreds of memoirs, autobiographies, oral histories and unpublished--and until now unexamined--primary source materials from cities across the country, he provides us with a warm and eloquent portrait of these children, their families, their daily lives, their fears, and their dreams. Illustrated with 68 photographs from the period, many never before published, Children of the City offers a vibrant protrait of a time when our cities and our grandparents were young.

Author Biography

David Nasaw, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History, the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and author of Andrew Carnegie

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Preface	vii
The City They Called Home	1	(16)
At Play in the City	17	(22)
Child Labor and Laborers	39	(9)
The Littlest Hustlers	48	(14)
The Newsies	62	(26)
Junkers, Scavengers, and Petty Thieves	88	(13)
The ``Little Mothers''	101	(14)
All That Money Could Buy	115	(15)
The Battle for Spending Money	130	(8)
The Children and the Child-Savers	138	(20)
Working Together	158	(9)
Unions and Strikes	167	(20)
End of an Era	187	(8)
Epilogue	195	(12)
Appendix: A Note on Sources: The Newsboy Studies	207	(2)
Abbreviations	209	(2)
Notes	211	(24)
Index	235