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Reform and Resistance: Gender, Delinquency, and America's First Juvenile Court
Reform and Resistance Gender Delinquency and America's First Juvenile Court Author:Anne Meis Knupfer Working in a tradition established by pioneering historians like Kathy Preiss, Lizabeth Cohen, and George Chauncey, Ann Meis Knupfer has written the first thorough study of the Cook County Juvenile Court in Chicago, one of the myriad Progressive initiatives designed to impose order on an increasingly diverse turn-of-the-century American city. F... more »rom its inception the Court concerned itself primarily with "incorrigible" girls - those young (often immigrant or African-American) women caught riding in a closed automobile, loitering in a department store, or shimmying on the dance floor. Knupfer approaches encounters between delinquents and this new arm of the state as a series of narratives promulgated by legal operatives, state bureaucrats, female social workers, and the girls themselves. Using the elastic term "delinquency" as their canvas, these parties painted conflicting portraits of modernizing America. They told stories about the emergence of the state, the gendered nature of professionalism, the dangers (and promise) of consumer culture, and the possibility of pluralism. Combining rigorous research with passionate writing, To Become Good, Self-Supporting Women provides a unique examination of adolescence, sex, delinquency, race, and gender.« less