Socializing the Young: The Role of Foundations, 1923-1941

(Hardback)

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Demonstrates how the intimate domains of private life--child-rearing practices, marital and familial relations--have been permeated by the political strategies advanced by foundations, which have broken down or diminished the opposition between the public and the private during the 20th century. The Rockefeller philanthropies and the Macy Foundation launched a series of programs during the 1920s and 1930s aimed at the production and dissemination of knowledge on the rearing and education of the young. Thus, millions of dollars in foundation funds were put into projects in child study and parent education, the reorganization of secondary education, child growth and development, culture and personality studies, and the personality development of young children by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, the General Education Board, the Macy Foundation during the period 1923 to 1941. Informing these projects was a coherent sociopolitical agenda: in order to promote a stable, pacified social order, the foundation projects attempted to foster the formation of "friendly," "sane," and sociable personalities, who would avoid conflict and other kinds of "anti-social" behavior. Thus, the micropractices of private life, especially child rearing and familial and marital practices, were targeted by a sociopolitical scheme oriented toward the reconstruction and pacification of social life. The book examines in depth the foundation programs and the deliberations of officers and trustees as they designed and implemented these programs. Special attention is payed to the role of Lawrence K. Frank in the creation and direction of the foundation programs.

Reviews

"Dennis Bryson utilizes Foucauldian theory to provide a unique account of the relationship between Rockefeller philanthropy and the production and dissemination of knowledge on the socialization of the young. He exposes in exemplary fashion the manner in which the foundations created a 'normalizing elite' of experts who in turn were successful in setting norms and standards for child rearing and personality formation. This book helps us understand how social scientific research helped to integrate the individual in society and specifically contributed to the transition from rigid to more relaxed child rearing methods."-Donald Fisher University of British Columbia
"Dennis Bryson's book "Socializing the Young" is fascinating, significant, and well-written. It takes up a central chapter in the "modernization" of the social sciences in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century, exploring cultural, political, and gender issues in a way that is genuinely impressive."-Jon Wiener Professor of History University of California, Irvine
Dennis Bryson offers a detailed and informative analysis of the attempts by American Socail scientists and philanthropic foundation officers in the 1920s and 1930s to engineer the socialization of children and young people into more cooperative and sociable persons....is a useful addition to the literature on philanthropy and the social sciences.-Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
The Author is to be congratulated on giving the reader a historical sense of the utopian optimism of this period in the history of the social sciences. At the same time, he does not lose sight of the fact that Frank and his colleagues in the foundations had social control as their ultimate objective.-Anthropology & Education Quarterly
"The Author is to be congratulated on giving the reader a historical sense of the utopian optimism of this period in the history of the social sciences. At the same time, he does not lose sight of the fact that Frank and his colleagues in the foundations had social control as their ultimate objective."-Anthropology & Education Quarterly
"Dennis Bryson offers a detailed and informative analysis of the attempts by American Socail scientists and philanthropic foundation officers in the 1920s and 1930s to engineer the socialization of children and young people into more cooperative and sociable persons....is a useful addition to the literature on philanthropy and the social sciences."-Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

Author Bio

DENNIS Raymond BRYSON is Assistant Professor, Department of American Culture and Literature, Bilkent University, Turkey.