Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Coles, Robert - New Yorker (review date 10 February 1986)

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New Yorker (review date 10 February 1986)

SOURCE: Review of The Political Life of Children and The Moral Life of Children, in The New Yorker, Vol. LXI, No. 51, February 10, 1986, p. 115.

[The following brief review offers a concise statement of Coles' observations on the political and moral development in children.]

These two volumes report the results of long-term surveys in the United States and nine other countries by the noted psychiatrist. Dr. Coles mentions that previous investigations of the ways in which values are transmitted through time have not been extensive, even though the subject is of considerable interest. Not surprisingly, he found that, for good or ill, children pick up political attitudes at home. Where the political scene is one of violent division, as in Northern Ireland, the child's identity is fused with group hatred. Other children—American Indians, for example—early see the political...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Melvin J. Friedman (review date Fall 1982)
   2. Neil Postman (review date 19 January 1986)
   3. Katherine Paterson (review date 2 February 1986)
   4. Jonathan Kellerman (review date 9 February 1986)
   5. New Yorker (review date 10 February 1986)
   6. John Leo (review date 17 March 1986)
   7. Kenneth L. Woodward (review date 6 September 1987)
   8. Jeff Dietrich (review date 13 September 1987)
   9. Fitzhugh Mullan (review date 8 May 1988)
   10. Helen Bevington (review date 26 February 1989)
   11. Francis X. Rocca (review date March 1989)
   12. Iain Bamforth (review date 7-13 July 1989)
   13. Sanford Pinsker (essay date Summer 1989)
   14. Herbert Mitgang (review date 21 November 1990)
   15. Laura Sessions Stepp (review date 23 December 1990)
   16. The New Yorker (review date 7 January 1991)
   17. Virginia C. Hoch (review date 26 August-2 September 1992)
   18. A. J. S. (review date 1993)
   19. Michelle Huneven (essay date 3 October 1993)
   20. Robert A. Sirico (review date 15 November 1993)
   21. Gail Russell Chaddock (review date 9 December 1993)
   22. Ed Walraven (essay date 1994)
   23. Paulina F. Kernberg (review date October 1994)
   24. Richard Bernstein (review date 27 January 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright