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Social Science General

Daughters of the State

A Social Portrait of the First Reform School for Girls in North America, 1856-1905

by (author) Barbara Brenzel

Publisher
The MIT Press
Initial publish date
Oct 1985
Category
General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780262521048
    Publish Date
    Oct 1985
    List Price
    $25.00 USD

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Description

A rich and fascinating study of education, social reform, and women's history, Daughters of the State explores the lives of young girls who came to the State Industrial School for Girls in Lancaster, Massachusetts during its first fifty years.Brenzel skillfully integrates the complex lines of nineteenth-century social thought and policies formed around issues of work, sex roles, schooling, and sexuality that have carried through to this century. In the school's handwritten case histories and legislative reports, she uncovers institutional mores and biases toward the young and the poor and especially toward women. Brenzel also reveals the plight of the parents who were forced by their circumstances to condemn their children to such institutions in the hope of improving their futures.

About the author

Barbara Brenzel is Assistant Professor of Education and Department Chair at Wellesley College. Daughters of the State is an MIT-Harvard joint Center for Urban Studies Book.

Barbara Brenzel's profile page