Children of Crisis, Volumes II and III
by Robert Coles
Summary
Two volumes from a groundbreaking series in which child psychiatrist Robert Coles documents the lives of American children caught in waves of social upheaval, including the families of migrant farmworkers and Black families moving from the rural South to northern cities. Through long observation and patient interviews, Coles captures how children make sense of poverty, racism, and dislocation in their own words and drawings. The work brought child psychiatry into dialogue with civil rights, labor, and migration history.
Historical Context & Significance
Volumes II and III of Coles's landmark five-volume series won the Pulitzer. Coles was a child psychiatrist who spent years interviewing and observing children affected by desegregation, poverty, and social transformation across America.