Work and Play: The Production and Consumption of Toys in Germany, 1870–1914. By David D. Hamlin. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. 2007. Pp. x+286. Cloth $70.00. ISBN 0-472-11588-X.

摘要

Research on childhood is reemerging as an intriguing site for exploring variousndimensions of historical change. Work and Play is a case in point; it offers a solidnhistorical analysis of the German toy industry as such, but goes far beyond anstraightforward history of business. Hamlin enriches our understanding of the business of toy making by placing his findings about new approaches to toynproduction and marketing in their particular economic and cultural con-ntexts—consumption and consumer-oriented capitalism in the late nineteenthnand early twentieth centuries and parental and pedagogic understandings ofnchildhood.