Prompted by the question, What would children's lives have been like if these people had not lived? Shapers of American Childhood: Essays on Visionaries from L. Frank Baum to J.K. Rowling explores individuals in literature, media, health, business, and other areas who impacted childhood in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Ranging from the recognizable, such Walt Disney and Benjamin Spock, to the less well-known, such as Ernest Thompson Seton and Augusta Braxton Baker, these people left indelible marks on children's culture as we know it today. Often controversial for their time, their ideas transformed American life, contributing to the ideal of a happy childhood.