Obedience and Emotion: A Challenge in the Emotional History of Childhood

This article deals with the emotional implications of children’s obedience, particularly in the context of significant reconsiderations of obedience in the United States from the early nineteenth century onward. Using newly-usable quantitative as well as qualitative information, the article assesses efforts to change the emotional valence of obedience, particularly by adding unprecedented emphasis on cheerful obedience (with a concomitant concern about sulkiness), and the reasons for this change. This interesting transition presaged a fuller decline of interest in obedience in favor of other childhood emotional qualities.