Series
Volume 24
Studies in German History
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The World of Children
Foreign Cultures in Nineteenth-Century German Education and Entertainment
Edited by Simone Lässig and Andreas Weiß
318 pages, 25 illus., bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-78920-278-6 $135.00/£99.00 / Hb / Published (October 2019)
eISBN 978-1-78920-279-3 eBook
Reviews
“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
Description
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.
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.
Andreas Weiß is a historian based in Berlin. A former research fellow of the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig, Germany, he was also a research fellow at University College London from October 2016 to April 2017.