ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers timely readings that look at the history of education from the perspective of the 'other' or the child left behind-whether that be the unruly child, the child with physical disabilities, the urban child, the immigrant child, or the racialized child. It extends the legacy of Romantic educators from early nineteenth- to early twentieth-century pedagogical practices. The book also shows how a range of literary works embraced Romantic educational tenets. It demonstrates the range, the depth, and the long-standing influence of Romantic pedagogies for writers who wrote for both children and adults throughout the long US nineteenth century. The collection itself is the part of an emerging body of scholarship published over the last fifteen years on the 'ascending importance of childhood' in the US in these years.
