Fantasies of Neglect: Imagining the Urban Child in American Film and Fiction

In our current era of helicopter parenting and stranger danger, an unaccompanied child wandering through the city might commonly be viewed as a victim of abuse and neglect. However, from the early twentieth century to the present day, countless books and films have portrayed the solitary exploration of urban spaces as a source of empowerment and delight for children.

Fantasies of Neglect explains how this trope of the self-sufficient, mobile urban child originated and considers why it pers...