Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (review)

Abstract

evidence of children and women’s agency. For instance, she examined unpublished footage omitted from Department of Defense-produced films to discover children’s “unscripted reactions,” where they refused to smile for the camera in passive resistance of their instrumentalization (43). Woo reminds us that ebullient images of humanitarian assistance often mask individual experiences of suffering and loss, as well as less-visible forms of violence and inequities that created the need for assistance in the first place. While Woo situates her book within American studies, it will also be interesting to scholars interested in Cold War studies, Asian studies, international humanitarian assistance, transnational adoption, race, gender, and childhood and youth. The book also connects to the emergent conversation within childhood and youth historiography on the roles of children and youth as pawns and symbols in the Cold War.