The World of Children: Foreign Cultures in Nineteenth-Century German Education and Entertainment(24 Studies in German History)

In an era of rapidly increasing technological advances and international exchange, how did young people come to understand the world beyond their doorsteps? Focusing on Germany through the lens of the history of knowledge, this collection explores various media for children-from textbooks, adventure stories, and other literature to board games, museums, and cultural events-to probe what they aimed to teach young people about different cultures and world regions. These multifaceted contributions from specialists in historical, literary, and cultural studies delve into the ways that children absorbed, combined, and adapted notions of the world.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Children, the Nation, and the World Simone Lässig and Andreas Weiß PART I: OFFICIAL KNOWLEDGE Chapter 1. New Words and the New World: Language and the Transnational Legacy of Joachim Heinrich Campe’s Robinson der Jüngere Kirsten Belgum Chapter 2. Images of Land and Sea: Experiencing the World as Adventure through Theodor Dielitz’s Travel Anthologies for Young Readers, 1841–1862 Matthew O. Anderson Chapter 3. World Knowledge in Textbooks for French Language Teaching in the Nineteenth Century in Germany Regina Schleicher Chapter 4. The World at War in German Textbooks: Knowledge of the World Conveyed in Representations of War Andreas Weiß Chapter 5. When Nippon Became Prussian: The German Image of Japan in Nineteenth-Century Textbooks Maik Fiedler PART II: LITERARY KNOWLEDGE Chapter 6. Thrilling Hearts and Winning Minds: The Representation of Monarchy, Navy, and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Juvenile Adventure Fiction Miriam Magdalena Schneider Chapter 7. Knowing Others as Selves: German Children and American Indians H. Glenn Penny Chapter 8. “Don’t you take pity on your little brothers and sisters in China?” Missionary Literature for Children and the Distribution of Relational Knowledge in Imperial Germany Katharina Stornig PART III: KNOWLEDGE IN ENTERTAINMENT Chapter 9. Around the World in a Jiffy: Humorous Treatments of Around-the-World Travel in German Children’s Books and Games Emer O’Sullivan Chapter 10. The Rise of the Trading Card: Collecting the World before World War I Judith Blume Chapter 11. A World Made for Exploration: Germans and Their Toys, 1890–1914 David Hamlin Conclusion: Kaleidoscope and Lens: Re-envisioning the Past through the History of Knowledge Simone Lässig Index

About the Author :

Simone Lässig, since 2006 Professor for Modern History at Braunschweig University, has been the Director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, since 2015. Prior to that, she was the director of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig, Germany.

"This collection of essays provides rich, varied, and well-contextualized examples of the disparate forms of media through which knowledge about the world reached German children and adolescents in the nineteenth century. I found it stimulating, original, and engaging." - Katharine Kennedy, Agnes Scott College

"The World of Children is a superb book, much needed by German historiography, and contains fascinating essays with original scholarship and research. It is a pleasure to read and has much to teach us about children's culture in the long nineteenth century." - Carolyn Kay, Trent University