Imaginary Citizens: Child Readers and the Limits of American Independence, 1640–1868

Contents

c o n t e n t s Acknowledgments ix introduction From subjects to Citizens: The Politics of Childhood and Children’s Literature 1  youth as a time of Choice: Children’s Reading in Colonial New England 32  Affectionate Citizenship: Educating Child Readers for a New Nation 63  Child readers of the novel: The Problem of Childish Citizenship 95  reading for social Profit: Economic Citizenship as Children’s Citizenship 131  natural Citizenship: Children, Slaves, and the Book of Nature 168 conclusion the legacy of the Fourteenth Amendment: Limited Thinking on Children’s Citizenship 206 Notes 219 Index 257 This page intentionally left blank ...