This unit explores the wide-ranging redefinition of childhood that began in the nineteenth century and helped move children to a central place in modern American culture and politics. It aims to make unfamiliar our commonsense, naturalized view of childhood, youth and ageing. The unit examines topics such as: child-rearing and the rise of new experts sexuality the invention of adolescence child abuse and protection children's labour and compulsory schooling juvenile delinquency dating children in the movies children as consumers youth culture and rebellion teenage pregnancy The study of childhood and youth will also challenge us to think creatively and critically about what we can learn from historical material ranging from conventional sources such as government documents, legal records, advice literature, psychological and psychiatric writings, photographs, films, and autobiographies to less conventional source such as oral histories, toys and games, clothing, and children's fiction.