Children, say Thompson and Austin, are missing from the visual history of America that most of us are familiar with. The authors (who also wrote The Face of Our Past)
fill in this gap with 300 images that belie the narrow, idealized view of childhood prevalent in this country: here we see children of all colors and classes, at home, at play, at work and in the community. Though there are some early American paintings and engravings, most of the images are photographs: children in one-room rural Southern schoolhouses and New Mexican missions; marching for better working conditions and civil rights; working in mills and gas stations and cotton plantations; frolicking in the sunlight. Some of the images are by legendary photographers like Jacob Riis and Dorothea Lange, while others are by lesser known artists or anonymous family members with Polaroid cameras. The photos are accompanied by short excerpts from childhood memoirs and children's letters and diaries. Though there's not much substantive text, Thompson and Austin's detailed captions and chapter introductions—as well as their often striking curatorial finds—offer a unique perspective on the upheavals and opportunities that families have found in the U.S. (Nov.)
