The Political Life of Children

Front Cover
Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986 - Medical - 341 pages
Robert Coles, one of the most eminent child psychiatrists in the world, spent over a decade researching this book and its companion volume, The Moral Life of Children. Coles visits children all over the world, listening with willing ears, and he captures their thoughts and feelings with remarkable sympathy. As Coles demonstrates in this fascinating work, children learn much more than we think they do about political issues. While we have always taken it for granted that parents teach their children about language, religion, and morality, Coles shows how mothers and fathers also instill a strong understanding of political life in their offspring.
 

Contents

Political Authority and the Young
19
The Homeland Psychoanalysis and the Political Thought of Children
51
Religion and Nationalism Northern Ireland
77
Ideology and Nationalism Nicaragua
138
Language Culture and Nationalism French Canada and Poland
158
Race and Nationalism South Africa
178
Class and Nationalism Brazil and the United States
223
Exile and Nationalism Children of Southeast Asia
258
Political Morality The Hard Dream of Survival
289
Notes
309
Index
327
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About the author (1986)

Boston-born psychiatrist and author Robert Martin Coles devoted his professional life to the psychology of children. Coles has been associated with the Harvard University Medical School since 1960. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his five-volume series entitled Children in Crisis, Coles has contributed hundreds of articles to popular magazines, as well as writing over thirty books for adults and children. Other books include The Mind's Fate, Flannery O'Connor's South, and Walker Percy: An American Search.

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