• The Disappearance of Childhood

  • By: Neil Postman
  • Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
  • Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (276 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
The Disappearance of Childhood  By  cover art

The Disappearance of Childhood

By: Neil Postman
Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.96

Buy for $13.96

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

From the vogue for nubile models to the explosion in the juvenile crime rate, this modern classic of social history and media traces the precipitous decline of childhood in America today, and the corresponding threat to the notion of adulthood.

Deftly marshaling a vast array of historical and demographic research, Neil Postman suggests that childhood is a relatively recent invention, which came into being as the new medium of print imposed divisions between children and adults. But now these divisions are eroding under the barrage of television, which turns the adult secrets of sex and violence into popular entertainment and pitches both news and advertising at the intellectual level of 10-year-olds. Informative, alarming, and aphoristic, The Disappearance of Childhood is a triumph of history and prophecy.

©1982 Neil Postman (P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Postman uses cogent arguments, sharp needles, and gentle humor to challenge listeners." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

What listeners say about The Disappearance of Childhood

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    189
  • 4 Stars
    53
  • 3 Stars
    28
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    156
  • 4 Stars
    54
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    161
  • 4 Stars
    42
  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An incredible essay on history, education, and media

Mindbending and extremely accessible. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that has left me with this many thoughts to grapple with. I was blown away by the author’s thesis about the impact of print, school, and media through the centuries. What an incredible wide-sweeping historical essay. I believe that a great deal of the books’s theories about TV apply directly to social media as well. An incredibly relevant read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thoughtful and perceptive

This is a most interesting book to read in conjunction with such current works as The Big Disconnect by Catherine Steiner Adair and Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A bit of a stretch, and needs updating.

Although I think Postman is (was) on to something, he tends to stretch his conclusions far beyond what the evidence supports, weakening his argument unnecessarily. The book is also in need of an updated edition for the Internet age, as it was written early in the Reagan administration and focuses on television, rather than the Internet. A savvy reader will be able to look beyond this and extrapolate the arguments to the modern age, but we have much more data available nearly 40 years after this book was first published, and it would be much more interesting and topical should it specifically cover the Internet and social media.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

this is the best introduction to Postman

This is the 3rd book of postman i read. however i feel this is the easiest to digest

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Haunting And Prophetic Discourse

This book is a must-read for anyone concerned about todays youth. It is far more true now than perhaps it was even at the time of its composition in the late 1980s or early 90s. Parents, educators, youth ministers and others would do well to make this an essential part of their library. As Postman demonstrates, both childhood and adulthood are in many ways disappearing and just as alarmingly, reversing roles. #Intergenerational #Captivating #Creepy #Haunting #Depressing #TagsGiving #SweepStakes

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enlightening

This book was truly Enlightening in that it opened my eyes to how pervasive the death of childhood has become in our society.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Parents & Schools need to do something

The culture is killing America
Parents need to do something
&
The schools need to do better
Good book
Give it a listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Dated and A Few Caveats

Postman is an interesting thinker who many can benefit from reading; that said, this work, even in its updated form, is dated (1990s) and I think Postman would agree, were he still alive today, that the scope and speed of technological change has made a thorough reevaluation of the book's thesis appropriate and necessary. Indeed, of Postman's two hypothesis: 1. That childhood was largely an invention of the last 300 years, and 2. That childhood is currently disappearing as it has been historically understood for those 300 years, the second is definitely correct, while the first is problematic, and current developments have rendered even the validity of the second hypothesis somewhat compromised. For example, because of the explosion in consumer capitalism even since the 1990s, childhood has been comoditized, and a whole range of products designed to enhance and further it - Disney Channel is perhaps the best example of this - of course, that explanation could only fully satisfy a materialist, but the point stands. It would be more accurate to say that childhood is disappearing and has largely disappeared, but that a certain phase of it - infancy to early adolescence - has been intensified. Regarding Postman's first hypothesis, decidedly less can be said in its favor. Postman had a terrible tendency to generalization common to many writers of his era and subject matter, with Robert Putnam being perhaps the best known example. That doesn't mean that their work is not worth reading, just that their method of argumentation requires more than a little salt to accompany it. For example, Postman's central contention that childhood didn't exist in the middle ages is easily disproven by a general reading of medieval literature; because it was quite different than the childhood of modernity Postman concludes that it didn't exist, but this is extremely reductionist and inaccurate. Even in the ancient world we know that the lives of children were significantly different qua their childhood - for example, ancient Egyptian children's toys, and similar things in Mesoamerican cultures like the Aztecs. Furthermore, Postman's tendency to generalize, and let far more evidentiary weight be carried by his generalizations rather than his dated and probably methodologically flawed statistics, is exacerbated by his tendency to... How can I say this?... Just make things up! Much of Postman's work traffics in anti-catholic and other enlightenment myths, which he can perhaps be forgiven for, as he was, after all, a product of the 1960s, despite being from the "Greatest Generation". What can't be forgiven, however, is when he just makes stuff like up: for example, he frequently refers back to the relationship of parents to their children and their genitalia in the middle ages, making wild assertions that have literally no precedent in any fact or evidence - and as far as I can tell, are not and were not argued by even the most antagonistic scholars of the middle ages. These fabrications flow from his progressive and secular liberal biases, but in the age of the internet, they can no longer even be countenanced and are just straight up false.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

life altering as a parent

couldnt stop finding reasons to turn it on. orderd the paperback book for husband.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enlightening

He rambles at some points but has man great points showing childhood leaving. He has historical information about where childhood came from that I would have never thought of wondering.

Its outdated but the facts are the same

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!