{"product_id":"playthings-a-history-of-toys-9798196412752","title":"Playthings: A History of Toys","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Pierce Jumper\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Civilization\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat do the toys we give children actually teach them?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore than we think. And more deliberately than most of us are comfortable admitting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlaythings: A History of Toys\u003c\/i\u003e traces the four-thousand-year story of the objects we put in children's hands - from a clay ox found in the ruins of the Indus Valley to the AI-powered companions that listen to children's conversations and transmit them to cloud servers. Along the way, it uncovers a history that is surprising, sometimes disturbing, and impossible to look away from.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eToys have always reflected the societies that made them. The toy soldiers that flooded European markets in 1914 were propaganda. The racist mechanical banks of the 1880s were ideology delivered through play. Barbie told girls their future could be anything - and that the prerequisite was an anatomically impossible body. G.I. Joe told boys that masculinity meant physical dominance, and quietly escalated his biceps to impossible proportions over three decades while nobody noticed. The 1984 deregulation of children's television created the pink-and-blue toy aisle that most people assume has always existed - it hadn't.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut \u003ci\u003ePlaythings\u003c\/i\u003e is also the story of the people who pushed back. Louis Smith, who built the Shindana Toy Factory in the ruins of Watts and put Baby Nancy - a doll with Afrocentric features and natural hair - on shelves by Thanksgiving 1968. Kenneth and Mamie Clark, whose doll experiments testified before the Supreme Court and helped end school segregation. Marlo Thomas, who created \u003ci\u003eFree to Be You and Me\u003c\/i\u003e and watched a generation of toy marketers ignore everything it had achieved.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd underneath all of it, the science of why play matters at all - why every mammal does it, what happens to brains deprived of it, and why the ancient clay ox and the modern LEGO brick are doing the same fundamental work for the children who hold them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlaythings\u003c\/i\u003e is history as it should be written: specific, honest, and full of people who were trying to figure out - as we still are - what we owe to children, and what we are telling them without meaning to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePerfect for readers of\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eStuff Matters\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Bomber Mafia\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHidden Figures\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e - narrative nonfiction that finds the big story inside a subject everyone thought they already understood.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Independently Published","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47892812267671,"sku":"9798196412752","price":1338.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9798196412752.webp?v=1781189143","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/playthings-a-history-of-toys-9798196412752","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}