performances. All of these actors were first and foremost workers before they were children, even if their own father was leading the troupe. Newspaper reviews cited throughout the book focus on how these actors’ performances were in no way infantilized, but were positively compared to adult actors. The children took on adult roles with ease, in addition to roles requiring crossdressing and black-face. Their status as public figures is clearly communicated through the broad news coverage of the scandals facing the Marsh Troupe, especially young Mary’s tragic death and Alfred’s series of lawsuits. The Marsh Troupe had fans, and they worked to embrace their followers by using photographs and other printed materials to increase their publicity. An established theatre historian, Vey delves into the historical archive, relying not only on theatre advertisements and popular press, but also on birth, marriage, and death certificates as well as town directories. The scope of her research is quite impressive and demonstrates her commitment to understanding her subjects as fully as possible. She has evidently sought out every possible piece of information available and has situated the material into a broader context through which to examine the economics of child labour. Her work is not limited to the Marsh Troupe’s exploits within the United States, but becomes transnational as she follows its members to New Zealand and Australia, offering interesting insight into the differing audience reactions to the theatrical material, performance styles and cross-dressing. In addition to her work exploring the labour conditions facing child actors, this archival research illuminates many topics of interest to fellow theatre historians and aficionados. Vey chronicles the mid-nineteenth century obsession with having children perform adult roles and offers several different interpretations for this phenomenon. By using such a wide variety of archival information, she showcases innovative ways to understand playbills and news reports and to implement these primary sources with economic materials left from individual theatres. In her well-argued Afterword, Vey contemporizes the issues she makes manifest throughout the book. In addition to commenting on the drastic changes in parenting philosophies from the period in question to today, she acknowledges the specific challenges facing child stars. In mentioning the problematic lives of numerous child stars, she seeks to explain why theatre stars of the nineteenth century seemingly made the transition much more effortlessly. While acknowledging the power of modern technology to capture and memorialize childhood as it is happening for contemporary stars, she also explains how the general respect and admiration for child performers’ actual work perhaps translated into more stable transitions to adulthood. For scholars who seek better to understand the fraught history of child labour, especially child labour in the entertainment business, Vey’s Childhood and NineteenthCentury American Theatre is a welcome addition.

中文翻译：

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父亲身份和英国工人阶级，1865-1914

表演。所有这些演员在他们还是孩子之前首先是工人，即使他们自己的父亲领导着剧团。整本书中引用的报纸评论重点关注这些演员的表演绝非幼稚，而是与成年演员进行了积极的比较。除了需要变装和黑脸的角色外，孩子们还可以轻松扮演成人角色。他们作为公众人物的身份通过对马什剧团所面临丑闻的广泛新闻报道，特别是年轻的玛丽的悲惨死亡和阿尔弗雷德的一系列诉讼，得到了明确的传达。马什剧团有粉丝，他们通过使用照片和其他印刷材料来增加他们的宣传，以吸引他们的追随者。一位知名的戏剧历史学家，Vey 深入研究历史档案，不仅依靠戏剧广告和大众媒体，还依靠出生、结婚和死亡证明以及城镇名录。她的研究范围令人印象深刻，并表明她致力于尽可能全面地了解她的主题。显然，她已经寻找了所有可能的信息，并将材料置于更广泛的背景下，通过这些背景来研究童工的经济学。她的作品不仅限于马什剧团在美国的功绩，而且随着她跟随其成员前往新西兰和澳大利亚而变得跨国，提供有趣的洞察力，了解观众对戏剧材料、表演风格和变装的不同反应。除了她探索童星面临的劳动条件的工作，这项档案研究阐明了许多戏剧历史学家和爱好者感兴趣的话题。Vey 记录了 19 世纪中叶对让孩子扮演成人角色的痴迷，并为这种现象提供了几种不同的解释。通过使用如此广泛的档案信息，她展示了理解节目单和新闻报道的创新方法，并利用各个剧院留下的经济材料来实施这些主要来源。在她经过充分论证的后记中，Vey 将她在整本书中提出的问题与时俱进。除了评论从相关时期到今天的育儿理念的巨大变化之外，她还承认童星面临的具体挑战。提到无数童星的问题生活，她试图解释为什么 19 世纪的戏剧明星似乎更轻松地进行了转变。在承认现代技术在捕捉和纪念当代明星正在发生的童年方面的力量的同时，她还解释了对儿童表演者实际工作的普遍尊重和钦佩如何转化为更稳定的成年过渡。对于想要更好地了解童工、尤其是娱乐业中的童工历史的学者来说，维的童年和十九世纪美国剧院是一个受欢迎的补充。她还解释了对儿童表演者实际工作的普遍尊重和钦佩如何转化为更稳定的成年过渡。对于想要更好地了解童工、尤其是娱乐业中的童工历史的学者来说，维的童年和十九世纪美国剧院是一个受欢迎的补充。她还解释了对儿童表演者实际工作的普遍尊重和钦佩如何转化为更稳定的成年过渡。对于想要更好地了解童工、尤其是娱乐业中的童工历史的学者来说，维的童年和十九世纪美国剧院是一个受欢迎的补充。