Babies Made Us Modern: How Infants Brought America into the Twentieth Century

Medicine, psychology, business, and crucial events such as war all played a part in the modernization of childhood. Golden (history, Rutgers Univ.-Camden; Message in a Bottle: The Making of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) offers a lens into the transformation of how children were viewed and societal attitudes toward them from the late 19th century through the baby boom of the 20th century. For example, increasing awareness of germ theory sparked a newfound emphasis on physical health that coincided with a decline in infant mortality. The benefits and ills of the Second Industrial Revolution ultimately focused on the "rights" of children and the importance of education. Emotional health through the application of psychology gained a place of significance in child rearing. Even the business world benefited from the "modern baby," as advertising and consumerism catering to infants reached great success. Golden's primary research of baby books, diaries, advertisements, and agency records convincingly illustrates the evolving yet symbiotic and equally influential relationship between modernity and babies.