From Boys to Men: The Boy Problem and the Childhood of Famous Americans Series(Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book)

While adult concern about gender in children’s books has made recent headlines, this discussion is far from new. As Gregory M. Pfitzer reveals, the writers and editors at Bobbs-Merrill, the publisher of the Childhood of Famous Americans book series published between 1932 and 1958, thought carefully about how their books would influence the development of their male readers. These books emphasized inspiring tales over historical accuracy and were written in simple language, with characters, dialogue, and stories that were intended to teach boys how to be successful men.

But this was a specific image of American manhood. Published in an era when sociologists, psychologists, and other experts worried about male delinquency, the men envisioned in these books were steeped in Cold War racial and gender stereotypes, and questions about citizenship and responsibility. Based on deep archival research into the publication history of the series, “From Boys to Men” sheds light on current controversies on children’s books and presentations of gender diversity.

• List of Illustrations
• Preface
  “Fiction Is the Lie through Which We Tell the Truth”
• Part I: Moral Education: Exemplary Figures
• Chapter One
  The Boy Problem
  Abe Lincoln and the Childhood of Famous Americans Series
• Part II: Public Servants: Statesmen and Politicians
• Chapter Two
  Seeking a National Audience
  Lee and Jefferson as Honorable Virginians
• Chapter Three
  The Series Concept
  The Founding Fathers as Male Role Models
• Part III: Military Readiness: War and Peace
• Chapter Four
  “Mama’s Boys” and “Infantile” Men
  The Roosevelts and the Masculine Mystique
• Chapter Five
  Citizen Soldiers and Fetishizing the Military Male
• Part IV: Social Relationships: Exclusivity and Race
• Chapter Six
  Frontier Manhood and the Dangers of “Going Native”
• Chapter Seven
  “Persecution Hounds” and the “Threat” of African American Masculinity
• Part V: The Vocational and Recreational: Balancing Work and Play
• Chapter Eight
  “Boys at Work”
  Technology and Business as Manly Pursuits
• Chapter Nine
  “Muscular Masculinity”
  Protecting Our Boys from Delinquency through Sports
• Part VI: The Intellectual Boy: The Power of Literacy
• Chapter Ten
  Male Delinquency and the Challenges of Historical Literacy
• Conclusion
  “Welcome Back, Miss Hazelrod”
• Notes
  Index

“The Childhood of Famous Americans books had tremendous reach and richly deserve the kind of careful attention Pfitzer gives them. The back-and-forth between author and creators is fascinating in terms of recent questions in the children’s lit field around who creates children’s books and the way mainstream publishing as an institution has been a barrier to diversity of authors and themes.”—Sara L. Schwebel, author of Child-Sized History: Fictions of the Past in U.S. Classrooms

“‘From Boys to Men’ has an impressive amount of archival research and provides a vivid, telling rendering of the inner working of an American publishing house.”

—Paige Gray, author of Cub Reporters: American Children’s Literature and Journalism in the Golden Age