| This thesis examines changing patterns of childrearing in the eighteenth-century English Atlantic through the study of children's literature published by Englishman John Newbery and American Isaiah Thomas. A close reading of children's books published by both men demonstrates that during this period children's social and economic importance increased, as publishers and merchants increasingly focused their efforts on attracting this new market sector. The literature also suggests a key way in which parents, publishers, and children negotiated the rearing of youth and the ideals of society. Written and published in a period of cultural and social transition, these texts highlight the slow and uneven process of change. New ideas did not simply replace older notions of appropriate childrearing but fervently strove to remind people of their social and moral obligations toward one another. Built upon the success of older styles of literature, such as chapbooks and children's primers, and influenced by contemporary literary developments, including the rise of the novel, this collection of books served as the foundation for today's children's texts. |
