Playtime

A History of Australian Childhood

Emily Gallagher

$36.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY PRESS
16 September 2025

History; Australasian & Pacific history; Age groups: children

The first history of childhood play and imagination in pre-war Australia

This groundbreaking book is a history of the childhood imagination in Australia between 1890 and the outbreak of the Second World War. It is a story about the generations that grew up at a time when nation and empire were being reimagined amid the globalising currents of war, technology and trade. Theirs were faces that would remain forever young in monochrome film, and whose thoughts and dreams would be preserved between the timeless blue lines of the modern school exercise book.

The book is built around six imaginative worlds - the worlds of amateur journalism, bird loving, war and adventure, dolls, the future, and monsters and fairies. It brings these worlds, and the voices of children, to life, exploring an incredible array of children's artefacts and seeing the social history of Australia through a new lens.

By: Emily Gallagher
Imprint: LA TROBE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 1mm, Width: 1mm,
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9781760645663
ISBN 10: 1760645664
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 16 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Emily Gallagher is a research editor for the Australian Dictionary of Biography, at the Australian National University. Her PhD thesis won the Serle Award, a biennial prize awarded by the Australian Historical Association for the best postgraduate thesis in Australian history, and the Lyndall Ryan Thesis Prize. It was also shortlisted for the J.G. Crawford Prize.