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A review by mrossperkins
The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman
4.0
Postman's thesis is provocative and sobering, and the modern cultural norms brought about by the internet only solidify the validity of basically everything he argues in this book. It's legitimately terrifying to read this book in the context of the modern era, because everything that we now take for granted as being completely normal serves as direct, undeniable evidence that Postman's prophecies and frantic warning sirens were basically spot on back in 1982.
My only criticism is that Postman's substantiations suffer from a narrowly specific anglocentric point of view that never once in the course of the book acknowledges the existence of non-western cultures and histories. The book would have benefitted a lot from integrating the sociological perspectives of non-western cultures, and I think that Postman's arguments would have only been made more comprehensive and authoritative by this kind of cultural and historical cross-comparison. After all, certainly if the book's arguments are valid, integration of non-western perspectives would surely just further reinforce and confirm this validity.
The anglocentric basis for his thesis becomes a bit treacherous at times and requires the reader to constantly remind oneself that when Postman refers to "childhood," he is not referring to it in terms of developmental psychology or human biology; his scope is limited solely to a childhood of western hegemonic and cultural conception. He makes this explicitly clear many times in the text, but it's often necessary to remember that Postman is talking less about childhood as a universal human phenomenon and more about childhood as it is uniquely conceived and acted out by specific people living in a specific place and in a specific historical context.
I enjoyed this book and found it illuminating, although not nearly as much as I enjoyed Postman's far more cogent "Amusing Ourselves to Death." In "The Disappearance of Childhood," his position is staunchly reactionary by comparison, though his warnings are definitely timely and important, and his writing is engaging and highly accessible, given the bleak subject matter.
My only criticism is that Postman's substantiations suffer from a narrowly specific anglocentric point of view that never once in the course of the book acknowledges the existence of non-western cultures and histories. The book would have benefitted a lot from integrating the sociological perspectives of non-western cultures, and I think that Postman's arguments would have only been made more comprehensive and authoritative by this kind of cultural and historical cross-comparison. After all, certainly if the book's arguments are valid, integration of non-western perspectives would surely just further reinforce and confirm this validity.
The anglocentric basis for his thesis becomes a bit treacherous at times and requires the reader to constantly remind oneself that when Postman refers to "childhood," he is not referring to it in terms of developmental psychology or human biology; his scope is limited solely to a childhood of western hegemonic and cultural conception. He makes this explicitly clear many times in the text, but it's often necessary to remember that Postman is talking less about childhood as a universal human phenomenon and more about childhood as it is uniquely conceived and acted out by specific people living in a specific place and in a specific historical context.
I enjoyed this book and found it illuminating, although not nearly as much as I enjoyed Postman's far more cogent "Amusing Ourselves to Death." In "The Disappearance of Childhood," his position is staunchly reactionary by comparison, though his warnings are definitely timely and important, and his writing is engaging and highly accessible, given the bleak subject matter.