Much of their tuition: The historical matrix of youth, consumerism, and mass culture as illustrated in the pages of the Youth's Companion, 1827–1929
Abstract
By retelling the commercial history of the longest-running American children's magazine, this project contributes to the fields of periodical, advertising, and juvenile history. Founded in 1827 and published regularly for 102 years, the Youth's Companion reflects the shift from the nineteenth-century Protestant Victorian ethos to that of twentieth-century commercial modernism. More specifically, the Youth's Companion allows the present-day reader to trace the development of a commercial imaginary as it was expressly created for and embraced by the first modern generations of children and adolescents. For this reason, the Youth's Companion must be included among other nineteenth-century magazines now recognized as major sites for the early dissemination of advertising and commercial ideals. First, the Companion is situated within the context of the rise of the middle-class magazine, the close alliance of Protestantism and capitalism, and the newly defined emotionally priceless child. From this starting point, the project modifies the long-held characterization of the publication as a dogged mouthpiece for conservative New England religious values. Next, the publication's premium system is examined in detail in order to classify it as one of the earliest juvenile consumer training devices. The project then analyzes the publication's advertising and finds that, well in advance of advertising aimed directly at them, children were being addressed as a secondary audience in their parents' ads. When children's advertising finally arrived, it was either seamlessly grafted to earlier forms and themes, including that of muscular Christianity and the boys' adventure story, or it readily employed shaming techniques coming into vogue in adult advertising as well. Finally, the Companion's last years are examined in light of the multiple commercial discourses it helped initiate, but which ultimately crowded it out of the marketplace.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Curtis, Purdue University.
Subject Area
American studies|Mass media|American history
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