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The Nurture of Nature
Childhood, Antimodernism, and Ontario Summer Camps, 1920-55
Sharon Wall (Author)
9780774816403
Paperback / softback, published 1 January 2010
392 pages, 38 b&w photos, 1 map
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.58 kg
Thousands of children attended summer camps in twentieth-century Ontario. Did parents simply want a break, or were broader developments at play? The Nurture of Nature explores the history of summer camps and sheds light on a wider phenomenon: the divided consciousness that informs modern assumptions about nature, technology, and identity. Wall examines how two competing tendencies – antimodern nostalgia and modern sensibilities about the landscape, child rearing, and identity – played out in the camp's interaction with nature, its class and gendered dimensions, its engagement with emerging ideologies of childhood, and in the politics of race inherent in its "Indian" programming. The Nurture of Nature offers a fascinating discussion of the summer camp's contribution to modern social life that will appeal to students and practitioners of the history of childhood, the natural environment, and recreation or anyone who has been packed off to camp and wants to explore why.
Foreword: Modernism in Camp: A Wilderness Paradox / Graeme Wynn Introduction 1 Back to Nature: Escaping the City, Ordering the Wild 2 Socialism for the Rich: Class Formation at the Private Camp 3 "All they need is air": Building Health, Shaping Class at the Fresh Air Camp 4 Making Modern Childhood, the Natural Way: The Camp Experiment with Psychology, Mental Hygiene, and Progressive Education 5 Shaping True Natures in Nature: Camping, Gender, and Sexuality 6 Totem Poles, Tepees, and Token Traditions: "Playing Indian" at Camp Conclusion: All Antimodern Melts into Modern? Notes Bibliography Index