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Construction Toys and Modern European Culture: Education, Politics, and Technology, 1830 to 1940 book cover

1st Edition

Construction Toys and Modern European Culture Education, Politics, and Technology, 1830 to 1940

By Artemis Yagou Copyright 2026
240 Pages 40 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

240 Pages 40 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This innovative take on construction toys explores the development and use of building-inspired playthings between 1830 and 1940 as they became the educational toys par excellence for industrialised and industrialising societies in Europe and elsewhere. Playful and instructive at the same time, and sitting at the intersection of leisure, learning, and technology, construction toys exemplified... Read more

Introduction

1. Origins and themes: Leisure, learning, technology

2. The form of toys: Following the Zeitgeist

3. Crucial knowledge: New skills through technical play

4. Building the future: The child as model citizen

5. Toys as national politics: Power and pride

6. The other side of play: Technology and fear

7. Utopian play: Modernity in miniature

8. How did they play?: The elusive question

Conclusion

Biography

Artemis Yagou, Ph.D., is a historian of design and technology, affiliated with the Research Institute of the Deutsches Museum (Munich). Her main interests are the cultural history of technology, digital humanities, construction toys, horology, and Greek material culture. Her numerous publications include Products, Users, and Popular Luxury in Early Modern Greece (2024).

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