The Disappearance of Childhood

by Neil Postman

Overview

From the vogue for nubile models to the explosion in the juvenile crime rate, this modern classic of social history and media traces the precipitous decline of childhood in America today−and the corresponding threat to the notion of adulthood.

Deftly marshaling a vast array of historical and demographic research, Neil Postman, author of Technopoly, suggests that childhood is a relatively recent invention, which came into being as the new medium of print imposed divisions between children and adults. But now these divisions are eroding under the barrage of television, which turns the adult secrets of sex and violence into popular entertainment and pitches both news and advertising at the intellectual level of ten-year-olds.

Informative, alarming, and aphorisitc, The Disappearance of Childhood is a triumph of history and prophecy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679751663
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/02/1994
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	372,811
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Neil Postman was University Professor, Paulette Goddard Chair of Media Ecology, and Chair of the Department of Culture and Communication at New York University. Among his twenty books are studies of childhood (The Disappearance of Childhood), public discourse (Amusing Ourselves to Death), education (Teaching as a Subversive Activity and The End of Education), and the impact of technology (Technopoly). His interest in education was long-standing, beginning with his experience as an elementary and secondary school teacher. He died in 2003.

Editorial Reviews

"Postman persuasively mobilizes the insights of psychology, history, semantics, McLuhanology, and common sense on behalf of his astonishing and original thesis."
—Victor Navasky

From the Publisher

The author of Technopoly examines the embattled nature of childhood in contemporary American culture. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly