When Children Become Consumers

WUNC | By Anita Rao

Published October 11, 2016 at 11:30 AM EDT

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Sunday school students and their teacher gather around the coffin of George Cook. This image was featured in an 1823 issue of Youth's Friend, a conservative magazine that used scare tactics to encourage the development of particular moral values.

Courtesy of the Lois Lenski Collection of Early American Children's Literature, UNC-Greensboro

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Dorothy the Motor-Girl celebrates the arrival of her car in an image from St. Nicholas magazine in 1911. St. Nicholas was a popular children's magazine that featured some of the most celebrated writers of the 19th century.

Courtesy of the Early Juvenile Literature Collection at UNC-Greensboro

Within minutes of watching weekend morning cartoons, viewers see a range of commercials targeting children. Social scientists have long been outspoken about the effect these kind of advertisements can have on children’s psyche and development.

But in his new book, historian Paul B. Ringel argues that children were targeted as consumers long before the invention of television. In “Commercializing Childhood: Children's Magazines, Urban Gentility, and the Ideal of the American Child, 1823-1918 ” (University of Massachusetts Press/2015), he examines how 19^th century children’s magazines established relationships with American families that introduced children to varied approaches to the consumer market.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Ringel, history professor at High Point University, about his research and how 19^th century marketing approaches compare to those used today. He recently wrote an article in "The Atlantic" about what 19th century magazines can illuminate about banned books today.