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Wendy Rouse, Radical Play: Revolutionizing Children's Toys in 1960s and 1970s America, Journal of American History, Volume 111, Issue 2, September 2024, Pages 386–387, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaae161
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In Radical Play, Rob Goldberg demonstrates how toys both reflected and shaped cultural discussions about war, race, and feminism in the United States. As scholars, parents, and activists in the 1960s and 1970s recognized the role of play in molding children's development, they increasingly advocated for toys that reflected their values. Goldberg illustrates how “the antiwar, civil rights, and feminist movements brought their political concerns to [manufacturers], turning toys into vehicles for protest and reform” (p. 2).
Beginning in 1964, women's groups organized annual protests outside the New York City Toy Fair to express their opposition to toys that glorified violence and war. Their protests reflected the larger goals of the peace movement in opposing nuclear proliferation during the Cold War and the expansion of the war in Vietnam. Through pickets, letter writing, demonstrations, and boycotts, they pushed to educate consumers and toy makers about the negative effects of war toys. Grassroots organizations emerged to pressure toy makers to replace toys that prepared children for war with toys that encouraged children's creative development. In response, some toy makers shifted their marketing strategy and removed violent toys from their collections to demonstrate their support for the cause.
