Jack Hodgson is a British historian, academic, and writer who specializes in the history of children and childhood in the United States and Spain. Hodgson's work focuses particularly on children's political activism and experiences of warfare in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Career

Hodgson completed his BA (Hons) and MA at

Teesside University , mottoeng = Deeds Not Words , established = 1930 – Constantine Technical College1969 – as Teesside Polytechnic 1992 – gained university status , type = Public , endowment = £0.23 m (2019/20) , chancellor ...

and then completed his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

Northumbria University , mottoeng = A lifetime of learning , established = 1877 - Rutherford College of Technology1969 - Newcastle Polytechnic1992 - gained university status , type = Public , budget = � ...

under the supervision of Joe Street and

Tony Badger Anthony John "Tony" Badger (born 6 March 1947) is a British academic and historian. Until 2014 he was Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge and Master of Clare College, Cambridge. He is a specialist in post-Worl ...

. Hodgson was Badger's 37th and final PhD student before his retirement as a professor. His thesis was titled "Californians and others: marginalised children and the Golden State during the Great Depression." The fifth chapter of the thesis implicated the state of California in covering up the circumstances of children's deaths in custody at

Whittier State School The Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility was in essence a prison for youth located on Whittier Boulevard, in Whittier, California. Operated by the California Youth Authority, now part of California Department of Corrections, it once quarte ...

. Hodgson has subsequently lectured at Northumbria University and the

University of Roehampton The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...

. He currently serves as an ECR Board Member of the journal '' History: The Journal of the Historical Association.'' In 2022 he was awarded the Scottish Association for the Study of America's

Ellen Craft Ellen Craft (1826–1891) and William Craft (September 25, 1824 – January 29, 1900) were American fugitives who were born and enslaved in Macon, Georgia. They escaped to the North in December 1848 by traveling by train and steamboat, arriving ...

Prize.

Journalism

Hodgson's work has appeared in major news outlets including ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

'', the ''

San Antonio Express-News The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of Texas, with ...

'' and the

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

. In January 2020 Hodgson criticized U.S. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin in the Washington Post over his comments about climate activist

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded ...

's age and education. Multiple academics cited Hodgson's article to argue that there was such as thing as juvenile ageism and discrimination against young people in elements of society and the pattern of belittlement of youth activists by adult politicians. In January 2022 Hodgson criticized New York Governor

Kathy Hochul Kathleen Hochul ( ; née Courtney; born August 27, 1958) is an American politician serving as the 57th governor of New York since August 24, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she is New York's first female governor, as well as the firs ...

and New York City Mayor

Eric Adams Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and retired police captain serving as the 110th mayor of New York City since January 1, 2022. Adams was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York C ...

for their dismissive response to student protests in New York schools over a lack of measures to combat rising

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

transmission. In May 2022 Hodgson described the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

as a front for "Christian white nationalist minority rule" in the magazine New Politics after the leaked draft ruling to overturn

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and st ...

. In November 2022, Hodgson's essay in the Washington Post accused U.S. Labor Secretary

Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...

of hypocrisy over his condemning child labor abroad but not taking action over child labor in U.S. agriculture, which Hodgson's essay traced back the 1938

Fair Labor Standards Act The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppres ...

Academic publications

Hodgson's work includes cases studies of children's history such as analysis of

Harry Eisman Harry Eduardovich Eisman (1913–1979) was a Red Army war hero who first rose to prominence as a young Communist in The Bronx during the 1920s and early 1930s. After two spells in New York reformatories, Eisman subsequently fled to the USSR in 19 ...

and other children's Communist activism as part of the

Young Pioneers of America The Young Pioneers of America or Young Pioneers League of America was a children's organization affiliated with the Communist Party USA, under its various names, from 1922 to 1934. It began as the Junior Section of the Young Workers League of Ame ...

and the theory of researching and writing about the

history of childhood The history of childhood has been a topic of interest in social history since the highly influential book ''Centuries of Childhood'', published by French historian Philippe Ariès in 1960. He argued "childhood" as a concept was created by modern soc ...

. He advocates for historians to use children's drawings in their research in order to incorporate more youthful perspectives into the historical narrative.

Journal articles

* J. Hodgson, "Californians and Others: Children's Health, Nutrition, and Welfare in Depression-era Migrant Camps." ''Journal of American Studies'' (2022). * J. Hodgson, "The Transnational Defence of Mexican American Children's Rights in Depression-era California." ''Comparative American Studies'' 19:2-3 (2022): 165-181. * J. Hodgson, "From the Bronx to Stalingrad: Harry Eisman and the Young Pioneers of America in New York City." ''New York History'' 103:1 (2022): 68-84. * J. Hodgson, "Accessing children's historical experiences through their art: four drawings of aerial warfare from the Spanish Civil War." ''Rethinking History'' 25:2 (2021): 145-165.

Book reviews

* J. Hodgson, "Review: "Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties. By Mike Davis and Jon Wiener." ''History: The Journal of the Historical Association'' 106:373 (2021): 865-866. * J. Hodgson, "Review: "Lynne Curry, Religion, Law, and the Medical Neglect of Children in the United States, 1870–2000." ''Journal of American Studies'' 55:3 (2021): 734-736. * J. Hodgson, "Review: A brief history of schooling in the United States: from pre-colonial times to the present." ''History of Education'' 50:1 (2021): 134-136.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgson, Jack Living people 21st-century British historians Alumni of Teesside University Alumni of Northumbria University Academics of Northumbria University Academics of the University of Roehampton Historians of childhood 1996 births