Half a Banana, Two Baked Beans, and Zero Kisses: Parenting Advice in the Early Twentieth Century

05/23/23 • 30 min

Was Dr. Benjamin Spock’s bestseller The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care popular because early twentieth century parenting guides were awful and harsh?
Spock recording used with permission from WNYC Archive Collections.
References

Atkinson, V. Sue. “Shifting Sands: Professional Advice to Mothers in the First Half of the Twentieth Century.” Journal of Family History vol. 42, no. 2, 2017, pp. 128-146.
Cooper, D. “Dr. Benjamin Spock.” WNYC. 1 October 1973.
Maier, Thomas. Dr. Spock: An American Life. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998.
Needleman, Robert and Benjamin Spock. Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, 10th edition. Gallery Books, 2018.
Spock, Benjamin. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1957.
---. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York, 1946.
Spock, Benjamin, M.D. and Mary Morgan. Spock on Spock: A Memoir of Growing Up with the Century. Pantheon Books, New York, 1985.

Keywords
Baby doctor, celebrity doctor, celebrity M.D., pediatrics, pediatrician, pediatricians, baby expert, baby whisperer, attachment parenting, attachment parent, koala parenting, gentle parenting, gentle parent, elimination communication, potty training, toilet training, hospital birth, homebirth, home birth, infant feeding, baby led weaning, behaviorism, hygienists, history, history research, history pod, history podcast, pasteurization, louis pasteur, infant mortality, food safety, formula feeding, formula, baby formula, united states history, american history, U.S. history, housewife, tradwife, traditional wife, house work, mother love, baby food, toddlers, fresh air, Healthy kid, healthy kids, spoiled milk, summer complaint, scarlet fever, malaria

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Copyright 2023 Deborah Copperud + Katie Curler

05/23/23 • 30 min

Spock Talk: A Parenting Advice Podcast - Half a Banana, Two Baked Beans, and Zero Kisses: Parenting Advice in the Early Twentieth Century

Transcript

Intro

Welcome to Talk Spock! The podcast The podcast that explores:

What’s the deal with Dr. Benjamin Spock?
How did Baby and Child Care become the preeminent parenting guide of the 20th century?
Who gets to tell parents how to parent?

Who are we?

First of all, who are we? And why are we talking about Dr. Spock?

I’m Deborah

And I’m Katie

And we co-host another podcast,

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