ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the sociohistoric milieu of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focuses on the origins and reproduction of racial ideologies. It provides a theoretical foundation of race from which the author's interpretations of toys will arise. The book also discusses the concept of childhood within the United States as a distinct period in an individual's life. Childhood is not a universally shared social practice; rather, the construct of childhood is a temporally and spatially defined ideology. The book provides a mechanical and still banks, toys, dolls, costumes, and board games, and some background information on the manufacturers who created them. It provides a descriptive analysis of a sampling of toys depicting four 'races' Native Americans, the Irish, Asians, and the Black races. The book offers blackface minstrel shows as examples of both creators and creations of a racialized habitus.
