Main entry:

Ogata, Amy Fumiko, 1965-

Title & Author:

Designing the creative child : playthings and places in midcentury America / Amy F. Ogata.

Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2013]

Description:

xxii, 293 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Series:

Architecture, landscape, and American culture series

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-279) and index.
Introduction: Object lessons -- Constructing creativity in postwar America -- Educational toys and creative playthings -- Creative living at home -- Building creativity in postwar schools -- Learning imagination in art and science -- Epilogue: The legacy of consuming creativity.
Includes reproductions of CCA collection material; CCA mentioned in "Acknowledgements".
This publication was facilitated by the CCA Study Centre Visiting Scholars Program.

Summary:

"The postwar American stereotypes of suburban sameness, traditional gender roles, and educational conservatism have masked an alternate self-image tailor-made for the Cold War. The creative child, an idealized future citizen, was the darling of baby boom parents, psychologists, marketers, and designers who saw in the next generation promise that appeared to answer the most pressing worries of the age. Designing the Creative Child reveals how a postwar cult of childhood creativity developed and continues to this day. Exploring how the idea of children as imaginative and naturally creative was constructed, disseminated, and consumed in the United States after World War II, Amy F. Ogata argues that educational toys, playgrounds, small middle-class houses, new schools, and children's museums were designed to cultivate imagination in a growing cohort of baby boom children. Enthusiasm for encouraging creativity in children countered Cold War fears of failing competitiveness and the postwar critique of social conformity, making creativity an emblem of national revitalization. Ogata describes how a historically rooted belief in children's capacity for independent thinking was transformed from an elite concern of the interwar years to a fully consumable and aspirational ideal that persists today. From building blocks to Gumby, playhouses to Playskool trains, Creative Playthings to the Eames House of Cards, Crayola fingerpaint to children's museums, material goods and spaces shaped a popular understanding of creativity, and Designing the Creative Child demonstrates how this notion has been woven into the fabric of American culture."-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780816679607 (hardback)
0816679606 (hardback)
(pb)
9780816679614
0816679614 (pb)
9780816679614 (pb)

Subject:

Children United States Social conditions 20th century.
Creative ability in children United States.
Play environments United States.
Design Human factors United States.
Enfants États-Unis Conditions sociales 20e siècle.
Créativité chez l'enfant États-Unis.
Aires de jeux États-Unis.
Design Facteurs humains États-Unis.
HISTORY United States 20th Century.
ARCHITECTURE History Contemporary (1945- )
SOCIAL SCIENCE Children's Studies.
Children Social conditions.
Creative ability in children.
Design Human factors.
Play environments.
Barn.
Kreativitet.
Lek.
Förenta staterna.
United States.
Centre canadien d'architecture Collection

Added entries:

Centre canadien d'architecture
Centre canadien d'architecture. Centre d'étude
Architecture, landscape, and American culture series.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 282845
Call No.: BIB 220694
Status: Available