Overview

"A sweeping and innovative study that places young people at the heart of pivotal conflicts, decisions and transformations in American politics. Even though the voting age is 18, children in the United States are both crucial subjects and actors in democratic politics. Young people have been leveraged for important political causes again and again--from the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade in which civil rights leaders mobilized thousands of school kids in protest marches to the 2018 ""family separation"" policy in which Trump officials sacrificed migrant children as bargaining chips in its push for border control. In Democracy's Child, Alison L. Gash and Daniel J. Tichenor focus on the reciprocal relationship between children and politics by placing young people at the heart of pivotal conflicts, decisions, and transformations in American politics. From the March for Our Lives and Black Lives Matter, to Gay Straight Alliances and the Dreamer and Sunrise movements, they show that the prominence of young people as agents of change are unmistakable in contemporary political life. Yet, these movements reflect a long history of youth political mobilization and leadership, including Progressive Era labor organizing and 1960s civil rights and anti-war activism. Gash and Tichenor examine childhood as a potent category that combines with gender/gender identity, race, class, immigration status, or sexual orientation to produce powerful systems of privilege or disadvantage. Further, they argue that children also are crucial subjects of government and adult control, inspiring contention in nearly every realm of public policy, such as education, social welfare, abortion, gun control, immigration, civil rights and liberties, and criminal justice. A sweeping and innovative study, Democracy's Child reveals why the control, leveraging, and agency of young people shapes and defines our political landscape."

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9780197581667

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Reviews

Cynics and pessimists often overlook the important role that young people have played in U.S. politics. In Democracy's Child, Gash and Tichenor definitively show that this is a terrible mistake. The kids are more than alright-and the future of democracy depends on them. * Susan Burgess, Distinguished Professor, Ohio University, and Sr. Professional Lecturer, DePaul University * This fascinating book broadly explores children's relationship to politics. The authors move beyond familiar narratives about how law and policy affect children to examine children as symbols for political movements and also to understand children as political agents. By centering children, the book helps us to rethink political agency. It renders visible important political acts by and around subjects who do not yet have full political membership in society. * Julie Novkov, Professor of Political Science and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University at Albany, SUNY * Children organize some of the most powerful social movements worldwide. At the same time, they are often weaponized by adults waging their own wars over culture and politics. How can we do justice to the citizenship of children? Democracy's Child answers this pressing question, offering an innovative framing of children as subjects, icons, collateral and agents to illustrate the diverse facets of children's political lives. Through expertly curated storytelling and authoritative research, Gash and Tichenor guide readers toward a better understanding of how children experience and influence politics. * Elizabeth F. Cohen, Professor of Political Science, Syracuse University * Young people are key to the future of our democracy, and yet, they are often rendered marginal to the study of American politics. In Democracy's Child, Gash and Tichenor offer a powerful framework to understand the role of children and young people in politics. In making their case for a more expansive view of why children and young people are central to democratic politics, the authors skillfully weave present-day illustrations, from school board fights and youth activism over gun control and immigrant rights, to historical examples from labor movements and the Civil Rights Movement. This is a masterfully written book, with an agenda-setting framework, and a call to action that should inspire scholarship and investments in young people's political agency for years to come. * Karthick Ramakrishnan, Professor of Public Policy, University of California Riverside and board member, The California Endowment *

The book is a compelling argument for adults to pay more attention to the voices of youth and an affirmation to young people that they can make a difference. * M. R. Michelson, CHOICE * Cynics and pessimists often overlook the important role that young people have played in U.S. politics. In Democracy's Child, Gash and Tichenor definitively show that this is a terrible mistake. The kids are more than alright—and the future of democracy depends on them. * Susan Burgess, Distinguished Professor, Ohio University, and Sr. Professional Lecturer, DePaul University * This fascinating book broadly explores children's relationship to politics. The authors move beyond familiar narratives about how law and policy affect children to examine children as symbols for political movements and also to understand children as political agents. By centering children, the book helps us to rethink political agency. It renders visible important political acts by and around subjects who do not yet have full political membership in society. * Julie Novkov, Professor of Political Science and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University at Albany, SUNY * Children organize some of the most powerful social movements worldwide. At the same time, they are often weaponized by adults waging their own wars over culture and politics. How can we do justice to the citizenship of children? Democracy's Child answers this pressing question, offering an innovative framing of children as subjects, icons, collateral and agents to illustrate the diverse facets of children's political lives. Through expertly curated storytelling and authoritative research, Gash and Tichenor guide readers toward a better understanding of how children experience and influence politics. * Elizabeth F. Cohen, Professor of Political Science, Syracuse University * Young people are key to the future of our democracy, and yet, they are often rendered marginal to the study of American politics. In Democracy's Child, Gash and Tichenor offer a powerful framework to understand the role of children and young people in politics. In making their case for a more expansive view of why children and young people are central to democratic politics, the authors skillfully weave present-day illustrations, from school board fights and youth activism over gun control and immigrant rights, to historical examples from labor movements and the Civil Rights Movement. This is a masterfully written book, with an agenda-setting framework, and a call to action that should inspire scholarship and investments in young people's political agency for years to come. * Karthick Ramakrishnan, Professor of Public Policy, University of California Riverside and board member, The California Endowment *

Author Information

Alison Gash is Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Oregon. Her research focuses on the substantive intersections of law and social policy and their capacity to both reify and reform systems of exclusion-particularly those affecting BIPOC, Queer, and low-income communities. She is the author of Below the Radar: How Silence Can Save Civil Rights (Oxford, 2015) as well as numerous articles on legal advocacy and collaborative governance published in Law & Social Inquiry, JPART, and a range of other peer-reviewed journals. She has received multiple awards for her teaching, research and social justice advocacy including the Christian Bay Award, the Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy and the Martin Luther King Award for Social Justice. Gash is a frequent public lecturer with One Day University and contributor to outlets, including Politico, Newsweek, Washington Monthly, Slate, Washington Post, Fortune, The Conversation, and National Public Radio. Daniel J. Tichenor is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Social Science and Wayne Morse Center Senior Fellow at the University of Oregon. A scholar of immigration policy, social movements, and political history, he has published nine books, including Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control and Rivalry and Reform: Presidents, Social Movements and the Transformation of American Politics. His research awards include the American Political Science Association's Gladys Kammerer Award, Jack Walker Prize, Mary Parker Follette Award, Polity Prize, and Charles Redd Award. He has been a fellow at Princeton's School of Policy and International Affairs, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Abba Schwartz Fellow at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, a research scholar at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, and was named to the inaugural class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows in 2015. He has testified and provided expert briefings to Congress on immigration law and policy, and provided commentary and essays for National Public Radio, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Utne Reader, and The Nation.

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