Pricing the priceless child : the changing social value of children /
Viviana A. Zelizer.
- xvi, 277 pages ; 21 cm
Originally published: New York : Basic Books, 1985.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-266) and index.
Preface (1994) -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- From mobs to memorials: the sacralization of child life -- From useful to useless: moral conflict over child labor -- From child labor to child work: redefining the economic world of children -- From a proper burial to a proper education: the case of children's insurance -- From wrongful death to wrongful birth: the changing legal evaluation of children -- From baby farms to black-market babies: the changing market for children -- From useful to useless and back to useful? emerging patterns in the valuation of children -- Notes -- Index.
This study traces the emergence of changing attitudes about the child, at once economically "useless" and emotionally "priceless", from the late 1800s to the 1930s. It describes how turn-of-the-century America discovered new, sentimental ways to determine a child's monetary worth.
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Child rearing--Costs.--United States Child labor--United States Children--Public opinion--History.--United States Public opinion--History--United States Social values.