by Jill Lepore
A Chronology
A Select Chronology of Works and Events Mentioned
1516
Thomas More, Utopia
1550
Thomas Reynalde, The Birth of Mankind
1638
Francis Bacon, A History of Life and Death
1651
William Harvey, On Generation
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
1667
John Milton, Paradise Lost
1678
John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress
1684
Aristotle’s Master-piece; Or, The Secrets of Generation
1689
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government
1690
Cotton Mather, Addresses to Old Men and Young Men and Little Children
1693
Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
1707
Mather, The Spirit of Life Entering into the Spiritually Dead
1726
Mather, A Good Old Age
1735
Carolus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae
1752
Linnaeus, Step Nurse
First issue of the Lilliputian Magazine
1758
Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, revised
Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
1762
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile; Or, On Education
1790
John Wallis, The New Game of Human Life
1792
Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
1793
Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia: The Laws of Organic Life
1800
The Mansion of Happiness (British)
The Mansion of Bliss
1827
Karl von Baer discovers the mammalian egg.
1829
Jacob Bigelow, Elements of Technology
Thomas Carlyle, “Signs of the Times”
Joel Hawes, Lectures to Young Men on the Formation of Character
1831
Sylvester Graham, Thy Kingdom Come
1833
Graham, Lecture to Young Men, on Chastity
First issue of Mother’s Magazine
1834
Moritz Retzsch, The Chess Players; Or, The Game of Life
1836
Dorus Clarke, Lectures to Young People in Manufacturing Villages
1837
First issue of the Graham Journal of Health and Longevity
1838
Hans Christian Andersen, “The Storks”
1839
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Man Who Was Used Up”
Graham, Lectures on the Science of Human Life
1841
Catherine Beecher, A Treatise on Domestic Economy
First U.S. patent for a baby bottle
1843
The Mansion of Happiness (American)
First issue of the Child’s Friend
1845
Poe, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”
1854
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
1859
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
1860
Milton Bradley, The Checkered Game of Human Life
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is founded.
1863
Charles Kingsley, Water-Babies
1877
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man
1879
Henry George, Progress and Poverty
1882
The English Society for Psychical Research is founded.
1883
Hyland Kirk, The Possibility of Not Dying
1884
The American Society for Psychical Research is founded.
1886
Joseph Pulitzer publishes the first women’s page, in the New York World.
1887
Edward Wiebé, The Paradise of Childhood (published by Milton Bradley)
The American Journal of Psychology is founded by G. Stanley Hall.
1889
Clark University is founded.
1896
Plessy v. Ferguson
1899
H. G. Wells, When the Sleeper Wakes
Jack London, “A Thousand Deaths”
1900
Rediscovery of Mendel’s laws of inheritance
1903
Frederick Winslow Taylor, Shop Management
1904
G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence
1906
The Race Betterment Foundation is established.
Lewis M. Terman, “Genius and Stupidity”
1908
E. B. White, age nine, publishes his first poem, about a mouse.
1909
Freud and Jung visit Clark University.
The Harvard Business School opens.
The American Home Economics Association is founded.
1910
The Boston Wet Nurse Directory opens.
The term “scientific management” is coined.
1911
Children’s Room at the New York Public Library opens.
Frederick Winslow Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management
1912
Winfield Scott Hall, Life’s Beginnings: For Boys of Ten to Fourteen Years
Frank Gilbreth, Primer on Scientific Management
Christine Frederick, The New Housekeeping
1913
First issue of the Journal of Heredity
Winfred Scott Hall, Sexual Knowledge: In Plain and Simple Language
Margaret Sanger, What Every Girl Should Know
Adelheid Popp, The Autobiography of a Working Woman
1914
Lillian Gilbreth, The Psychology of Management
Sanger is indicted for publishing the Woman Rebel.
1915
The Baby Bollinger case
Christine Frederick, Household Engineering
1916
Terman, The Measurement of Intelligence
Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race
Lillian Gilbreth, Fatigue Study
Sanger opens up the nation’s first birth control clinic.
1917
Sanger begins publishing the Birth Control Review.
1918
Anne Carroll Moore begins reviewing children’s literature in Bookman.
Paul Popenoe and Roswell Johnson, Applied Eugenics
The influenza epidemic
1919
First issue of Better Times
Are You Fit to Marry?
1920
Edwin E. Slosson founds the Science Service.
1921
Sanger founds the American Birth Control League.
1922
G. Stanley Hall, Senescence: The Last Half of Life
First issue of Reader’s Digest
1923
First issue of Time
J.B.S. Haldane, Daedalus; Or, Science and the Future
G. Stanley Hall, Life and Confessions of a Psychologist
Equal Rights Amendment is introduced to Congress.
1924
Clara Savage Littledale, “Sublimation”
1925
First issue of the New Yorker
Paul Popenoe, Modern Marriage
The Scopes trial
Sinclair Lewis and Paul de Kruif, Arrowsmith
1926
Paul Popenoe, The Conservation of the Family
Clarence Darrow, “The Eugenics Cult”
De Kruif, Microbe Hunters
First issue of Children: A Magazine for Parents (later Parents Magazine)
1927
Ernest Hemingway, Men Without Women
The first issue of Amazing Stories
Buck v. Bell
Lillian Gilbreth, The Home-maker and Her Job
Thurman B. Rice, The Conquest of Disease
1928
Sanger, Motherhood in Bondage
&nbs
p; 1929
C. C. Little founds Jackson Laboratory.
Paul Popenoe and E. S. Gosney, Sterilization for Human Betterment
James Thurber and E. B. White, Is Sex Necessary?
1930
Paul Popenoe founds the Institute for Family Relations.
The parrot fever panic
1931
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
1933
Madison Grant, The Conquest of a Continent
Germany passes its first sterilization law.
1936
First issue of Life
1937
U.S. v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries
1938
“Birth of a Baby,” Life
“Birth of an Adult,” New Yorker
1941
E. B. White and Katharine S. White, The Subtreasury of American Humor
1942
The American Birth Control League, having merged with Sanger’s Birth Control Research Bureau, becomes the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
The American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists is founded.
1944
Gregory Pincus founds the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.
1945
E. B. White, Stuart Little
Betty MacDonald, The Egg and I
1946
U.S.A. v. Karl Brandt et al.
1947
Thirty-five hundred Jewish and Protestant clergy sign a resolution in support of Planned Parenthood.
1948
Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen
Robert Ettinger, “The Penultimate Trump”
1950
Ettinger, “The Skeptic”
1953
Ladies’ Home Journal begins publishing “Can This Marriage Be Saved?”
1955
Planned Parenthood begins discussing abortion.
1957
Pope Pius XII, “The Prolongation of Life”
Roth v. United States
1958
La Leche League, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
1960
The Game of Life
The Pill first sold
1961
Medela introduces the first non-hospital breast pump.
1963
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem
Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death
1964
Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove
Ettinger, The Prospect of Immortality
1965
“Drama of Life Before Birth,” Life
Griswold v. Connecticut
1966
First attempted cryogenic suspension
1967
Alan F. Guttmacher, ed., The Case for Legalized Abortion Now
1968
Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Pope Paul VI, “On Human Life”
Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb
Gordon Drake, Is the School House the Proper Place to Teach Raw Sex?
1969
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying
Geraldine Lux Flanagan, Window into an Egg: Seeing Life Begin
David Reuben, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)
Kevin Phillips, The Emerging Republican Majority
NARAL is founded.
1970
Nixon signs Title X providing federal funding for family planning.
1971
Nixon reverses his position on abortion.
1972
Ettinger, Man into Superman
Woody Allen, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
Furman v. Georgia
The ERA passes and goes to the states for ratification.
1973
Roe v. Wade
The first human life admendment is introduced to Congress.
Peter Mayle, Where Did I Come From?
Woody Allen, Sleeper
1974
Saul Kent, Future Sex
1975
In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan
Peter Mayle, What’s Happening to Me?
1977
Lennart Nilsson’s photographs are first launched into space on board the Voyager probes.
1979
Jerry Falwell founds the Moral Majority.
1980
Kent, The Life-Extension Revolution
1985
Founding of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America
1991
Medela introduces the Pump In Style breast pump.
1993
U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act
1996
David Popenoe, Life Without Father
U.S. Defense of Marriage Act
1997
Popenoe founds the National Marriage Project.
The American Academy of Pediatrics issues “Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk.”
2000
Pepper Schwartz and Dominic Cappello, Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children About Sex and Character
2003
Second Life, an online virtual world, is launched.
2005
Popenoe, War over the Family
2006
Robie Harris, It’s NOT the Stork!
2007
The Game of Life: Twists and Turns
U.S. Breastfeeding Promotion Act is introduced.
2008
Proposition 8 (California)
2009
Ettinger, Youniverse
Perry v. Schwarzenegger
Jennifer Ashton, The Body Scoop for Girls
2010
Laurie Abraham, The Husbands and Wives Club
Tara Parker-Pope, For Better
Lori Gottlieb, Marry Him
U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
2011
Robert C. W. Ettinger dies.
Congress debates ending federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
The Mississippi Personhood Amendment is defeated.
Notes
Introduction. THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS
1. Milton Bradley, The Checkered Game of Life (Springfield, MA: Milton Bradley Company, 1866), Liman Collection of American Board Games and Table Games, Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, New-York Historical Society.
2. Milton Bradley Company, The Game of Life (East Longmeadow, MA: Milton Bradley Company, 1960), in the possession of the author. “Milton Bradley’s New ‘Family-Fun’ Game,” New York Times, November 6, 1960. For a comparison of the nature of play between the 1860 and 1960 games, see Thomas A. Burns, “The Game of Life: Idealism, Reality and Fantasy in the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Versions of a Milton Bradley Game,” Canadian Review of American Studies 9 (1978): 50–83.
3. Game and Toy Catalogue (Springfield, MA: Milton Bradley Company, 1960), 5, Milton Bradley Archives, Hasbro, East Longmeadow, MA.
4. Milton Bradley, “Social Game,” U.S. Patent 53,561, issued April 3, 1866.
5. Deepak Shimkhada, “A Preliminary Study of the Game of Karma in India, Nepal, and Tibet,” Artibus Asiae 44 (1983): 308–22. Andrew Topsfield, “The Indian Game of Snakes and Ladders,” Artibus Asiae 46 (1985): 203–26. Bruce Whitehill, Games: American Boxed Games and Their Makers, 1822–1992 (Radnor, PA: Chilton Books, 1992), 24–25. On the popularity of goods from the East in Victorian parlors, see Kristin L. Hoganson, Consumers’ Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865–1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).
6. On the diary, see James J. Shea, as told to Charles Mercer, It’s All in the Game (New York: Putnam, 1960), 19. As recently as 1960, Milton Bradley’s papers were housed in the company’s archives. But beginning in the 1970s, researchers looking for the papers were turned away, and when I investigated, no one at Hasbro knew what had happened to them. I couldn’t find them when I visited the company
’s archives in November 2006, and my efforts to trace them through Bradley’s descendants didn’t turn up anything, either.
7. David Parlett, The Oxford History of Board Games (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 278–86.
8. Thomas More, Utopia, trans. Ralph Robynson (London, 1551). Whitehill, Games, 45. George Herbert, “115. Upon John Crop, who dyed by taking a vomit,” in Wits Recreations (London, 1640).
9. Bradley, Checkered Game of Life.
10. Asa M. Bradley, “The Bradleys,” typescript, 1907, Milton Bradley Archives, Hasbro, East Longmeadow, MA. See also Shea, It’s All in the Game, chapter 1; and Milton Bradley, a Successful Man: A Brief Sketch of His Career and the Growth of the Institution Which He Founded, Published by Milton Bradley Company in Commemoration of Their Fiftieth Anniversary (New York: J. F. Tapley, 1910), 4. Samuel Penhallow, The History of the Wars of New-England with the Eastern Indians (Boston, 1726), 10–11. Cotton Mather, A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New-England (London, 1707), 33–36. On captivity and redemption, see John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America (New York: Knopf, 1992), and Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity (New York: Knopf, 1998).
11. Mather, Deplorable State of New-England, 33. Cotton Mather, The Spirit of Life Entering into the Spiritually Dead (Boston, 1707), 6–22.
12. The New Game of Human Life (London: John Wallis, 1790). An early work of Edmond Hoyle’s was his A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist (London, 1742). Robert Lewis, “The Mansion of Happiness: English and American Versions of a Nineteenth-Century Board Game,” typescript, Games Collection, Box 1, OS Box 2, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA. See also Jill Shefrin, “ ‘Make It a Pleasure and Not a Task’: Educational Games for Children in Georgian England,” Princeton University Library Chronicle 60 (1999): 251–75.