History of Fatherhood Project
In a study carried out several years ago, Ralph LaRossa outlined the changes in American fatherhood in the early twentieth century, concentrating on fatherhood's "ups and downs" during the Machine Age, 1918-1941. The results from the study were published in The Modernization of Fatherhood: A Social and Political History (University of Chicago Press, 1997) as well as in articles and chapters in professional journals and edited books. In a follow-up study, he is examining how the Second World War shaped the culture and conduct of fatherhood in the United States. The focus is on 1937 to 1960, encompassing the time leading up to the war, the war itself, and the postwar era (1945 to 1960, also known as the "fifties"). The study also will address how the war had a ripple effect in the decades that followed and, on a more abstract level, is designed to delineate the complex connection between warfare and family life.
In piecing together a story about one of the most significant periods in history, Dr. LaRossa is poring over a rich and diverse set of materials, to include popular magazine articles, newspaper reports, child rearing manuals, advertisements, posters, cartoons, comic strips, radio/television shows, public and private records, advice-seeking letters to various experts, wartime correspondence, interviews with fathers and mothers, and a host of secondary sources.
The first publications to emerge from the study include: "The Culture of Fatherhood in the Fifties: A Closer Look," Journal of Family History, 2004, vol. 29, pp. 47-70; "'Until the Ball Glows in the Twilight': Fatherhood, Baseball, and the Game of Playing Catch," Chapter 7 in William Marsiglio, Kevin Roy, and Greer Litton Fox (eds.), Situated Fathering: A Focus on Physical and Social Spaces (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005); and "The Culture and Conduct of Fatherhood in America, 1800 to 1960," Japanese Journal of Family Sociology, 2007, vol. 19, pp. 87-98. A book on the project is also in the works.
