Reform and Resistance: Gender, Delinquency, and America's First Juvenile Court

Working in a tradition established by pioneering historians like Kathy Preiss, Lizabeth Cohen, and George Chauncey, Ann Meis Knupfer has written the first thorough study of the Cook County Juvenile Court in Chicago, one of the myriad Progressive initiatives designed to impose order on an increasingly diverse turn-of-the-century American city. From its inception the Court concerned itself primarily with "incorrigible" girls - those young (often immigrant or African-American) women caught riding in a closed automobile, loitering in a department store, or shimmying on the dance floor. Knupfer approaches encounters between delinquents and this new arm of the state as a series of narratives promulgated by legal operatives, state bureaucrats, female social workers, and the girls themselves. Using the elastic term "delinquency" as their canvas, these parties painted conflicting portraits of modernizing America. They told stories about the emergence of the state, the gendered nature of professionalism, the dangers(and promise) of consumer culture, and the possibility of pluralism. Combining rigorous research with passionate writing,Reform and Resistanceprovides a unique examination of adolescence, sex, delinquency, race, and gender.