| DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz
"The
Child" and Developmental Psychology as Historical Creations
Beyond the Century of the Child: Cultural History and Developmental
Psychology
Edited by Willem Koops and Michael Zuckerman. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2003. 304 pp. Cloth, $47.50.
In recent years, a growing interest in historical views of child development
has begun to enliven and confront Aries's (1962) claim that modern conceptions
of childhood are an artifact of the times--as were prior conceptions of
childhood. Still, we have far to go in expanding psychological understanding
of childhood beyond "The Child," conceived of as a natural phenomenon
but bearing an uncanny resemblance to the children of middle-class U.S.
and European researchers.
|
