Rizzoli's bookstore, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock attends a book signing at Rizzoli's bookstore in Manhattan. Dr. Spock's groundbreaking book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, first published in 1946, has been translated into 39 languages and has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.
School period
College/University
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1923
Gales Ferry, Connecticut, United States
The Yale Crews are hard at work for the coming racing season here. Photo show left to right, the members of the Yale Junior Crew; W. N. Ryerson, Bow; B. B. Pelly, Captain 2; T. F. D. Haines, 3; L. B. Lambert, 4; J. L. Miller, 5; W. I. Goodwin, 6; B. M. Spock, 7; K. A. Ives, stroke, and R. N. Barnard, Coxwain.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1924
Gales Ferry, Connecticut, United States
Yale crew 1924 at Gales Ferry- Seated Alfred Lindley, Alfred Wilson, Captain, James Rockefeller, Lester Miller, Frederich Sheffield, Leonard Carpenter. Standing- Edward Leader (coach), Howard Kingsbury, Benjamin Spock and William Robbins (Manager). Seated in front is Charles Stoddard, coxswains.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1925
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
B. M. Spock and A. D. Lindley, members of the Yale University crew team.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1929
New York City, New York, United States
Benjamin Spock in the year of his graduation from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Career
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1955
United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock talks to a mother and baby.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1962
United States
Pediatrician and author Dr. Benjamin M. Spock, dancing in his home.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1962
United States
Pediatrician and author Dr. Benjamin M. Spock, cleaning up his boat.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1962
United States
Noted pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock looking amused by two young patients during examination.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1962
United States
Pediatrician and author Benjamin Spock, with his wife.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1962
Rose Garden, White House, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
President Kennedy met at the White House with a group of physicians, most of them educators, who issued a statement afterwards favoring medical care for the aged under social security. Here the President chats with (left to right): Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Abraham Ribicoff; Dr. Caldwell B. Essel, Medical Director, the Rip Van Winkle Clinic, Hudson, NY; and Dr. Benjamin Spock, Professor of Child Development, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. The informal chat took place in the Rose Garden of the White House.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1962
United States
Noted pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock checking extended tongue of one of two very young patients during an office examination.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1964
Capitol 1/22, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Benjamin Spock, one of the nation's foremost baby experts, appears to be getting some "private advice" from 3 1/2-year-old Jamie Reed, of Midland, Texas. Son of Mr. and Mrs. James Reed, administrative assistant to Democratic Representative Ed Foreman, at the Capitol 1/22. Spock had been waiting most of the day to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on the medicare bill.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1965
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Portrait of pediatrician and author (as well as a future political candidate) Dr. Benjamin Spock, Cleveland, Ohio, 1965.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1965
United States
Pediatrician and author Dr. Benjamin Spock in 1960s.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1965
United States
Pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock is best known for his Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), which has sold more than 30 million copies and greatly influenced child-rearing practices.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1967
Martin Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is flanked by a policeman as he is picketed by a group of Harvard students after leaving a house on Martin Street where he gave residents pamphlets asking them to join his "Vietnam Summer" program. At a press conference earlier King called for a national volunteer group of 10,000 persons to form a political bloc to end the war in Vietnam. In the background is Dr. Benjamin Spock of the Committee for Sane Nuclear Policy.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1967
New York City, New York, United States
Walking arm-in-arm during the April 15 anti-Vietnam demonstration here are, From Left, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Martin Luther King, Monsignor Charles Rice, and Cleveland Robinson, Chairman of the Negro American Labor Council.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1967
Central Park West, New York City, New York, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock and Rev. Martin Luther King (center) protest against the Vietnam War along Central Park West.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1967
New York City, New York, United States
Martin Luther King Jr. marching in Vietnam protest parade. Spock is second from the left.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1967
Chicago Loop, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Doctor Benjamin Spock and Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. lead nearly 5,000 marchers through the Chicago Loop in protest of the United States policy in Vietnam.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1967
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock speaks at a 1967 anti-Vietnam rally in Washington, D.C. The famous pediatrician resigned a professorship that year in order to devote his efforts to the antiwar cause and to the pursuit of world peace.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1967
New York City, New York, United States
Dr. Spock being interviewed by a reporter in the press room after hearing at Criminal Court. December 06, 1967.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1968
Federal District Court, New York City, New York, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock receives a kiss from his wife, Jane after he and three others were found guilty, June 14th, of conspiring to advise youths to evade the draft.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1968
Federal District Court, New York City, New York, United States
Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Spock are shown on way to federal court (5/20) where the doctor and four other men go on trial on charges of counseling against the draft.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1968
United States
Pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock smiles and shows the finger sign for peace. Dr. Spock is the author of the best selling child development book Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care written in 1946.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1968
United States, New York City, New York, United States
Famed baby doctor, Dr. Benjamin Spock appears to have his hands full as he holds Andrew Chipman, I, who started to cry. A Boston Federal Court judge sentenced Dr. Spock and three other men to two years in prison for conspiring to counsel, aid and abet young men to evade the draft law. The other three men are; Yale Chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr. author Mitchell Goodman and Harvard graduate student Michael Ferber. All were released on bond pending an appeal.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1968
Kitayama Brothers Greenhouse, Brighton, Colorado, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock Marches with pickets Tuesday at Kitayama Brothers Greenhouse near Brighton; Women pickets with a noted pediatrician and war foe are, from left, Mrs. Lupe Briseno and Mrs. Martha Del Real.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1969
Chicago's Federal Building 10/29, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock, (r) purses his lips as Abbie Hoffman, (l) speaks at a news conference in Chicago's Federal Building 10/29, Hoffman is one of eight men on trial charged with conspiracy to incite riots during the Democratic National Convention. Dr. Spock, whose conviction on charges of conspiring to encourage draft evasion was recently overturned by the US Court of Appeals, said the conspiracy trial should be stopped.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1969
United States
Famous pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock holds young Rachel Wilson.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1969
135 E. 83rd Street, New York City, New York, United States
Closeups of Dr. Benjamin Spock, in his New York apartment, 135 E. 83rd Street.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1969
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Pediatrician, author, Olympic gold medalist and anti-Vietnam war activist Dr. Benjamin Spock calls the war "a total abomination" at the peace Moratorium on March 15, 1969, in Washington DC.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1969
Duffy Square
Dr. Benjamin Spock responds to greetings of thousands at Moratorium rally in Duffy Square. November 13, 1969.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1970
United Kingdom
Dr Benjamin Spock noted for his ideas on child-rearing, on a visit to Britain, holds up a copy of his book, 'Decent & Indecent'.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1971
Sydney, Australia
World famous child care specialist and opponent of the Vietnam war, Dr Benjamin Spock arrived in Sydney today for a three weeks National tour for the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign. He is pictured with his wife and Dr Jim Cairns, MHR. June 9, 1971.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1971
Sydney, Australia
World famous child care specialist and opponent of the Vietnam war, Dr. Benjamin Spock arrived in Sydney today for a three weeks National tour for the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign. He is pictured with his wife. June 9, 1971.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1971
Domain, Sydney, Australia
Dr. Spock speaking to thousands at Sydney Domain. June 20, 1971.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1972
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock, the antiwar pediatrician (right) who is running for President as the People's Party candidate, chats with Vernon Bellcourt, a Chipawah, and one of the leaders of the dissident American Indians, outside of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Some 500 Indians were occupying the building.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1972
United States
A happy Dr. Benjamin Spock chats with black activist Julius Hobson as latter applauds Dr. Spock's nomination July 29 as the People's Pary's 1972 presidential candidate here, turning back an effort to nominate Democrat Sen. George S. McGovern of South Dakota. Hobson is expected to be nominated as Spock's vice presidential running mate.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1972
Flamingo Park, Miami Beach, Florida, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock talks to a group of Vietnam Veterans against the War in Flamingo Park, near site of Democratic National Convention.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1972
United States
Pediatrician Benjamin Spock says he expects the People's Party convention to retain him as its candidates for President rather than support Democrat George McGovern. Dr. Spock relaxing in his hotel room also said conveying his party's message to the people is "incomparable more difficult "because the Democrats' nominee is McGovern. The McGovern advocates at the four day convention, say a vote for the Senator on the People's Party ticket would be an endorsement of the Party's more liberal platform.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1972
Capitol Rotunda, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Police arrested 121 antiwar demonstrators, including baby doctor Benjamin Spock (raising a clenched first) when they refused to halt a sit-in 5/16 in the US Capitol Rotunda and began singing patriotic songs.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1972
United States
American paediatrician, psychiatrist and pacifist Dr. Benjamin Spock addresses an audience during his election campaign as a candidate for the American presidency, running against George McGovern and Richard Nixon. His platform includes withdrawal of all American troops from everywhere, legalized abortion and marijuana, and amnesty for draft dodgers.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1972
United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock, Presidential Candidate; He said the party's aim is "build from the grass roots."
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1972
Portland, Oregon, United States
Head and shoulders of Dr. Benjamin Spock, child care specialist and People's Party candidate for President.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1973
United States
Peace activists Dr. Benjamin Spock, 70, and Jane Fonda appeared on a local tv talk show where the 35-year-old actress introduced her son to the famous pediatrician. Miss Fonda scheduled to speak at the City Club and ask for help for political prisoners in South Vietnam.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1974
United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock is laboring over a major, third revision of his best-selling "Baby and Child Care" to eliminate what he calls the book's "sexist" language and tone about babies and their parents. The result will be a new edition of the book Spock hopes will be less offensive to women.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1977
156-5th Avenue, New York City, New York, United States
Peter Mahoney (left), Vietnam Veteran and Dr. Benjamin Spock shown in a pensive mood during press conference at the at the offices of the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice, 156-5th Avenue, New York, New York. July 18, 1977.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1979
London, United Kingdom
American pediatrician and childcare author, Doctor Benjamin Spock (1903-1998) pictured in London on 22nd March 1979.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1982
Central Park, New York City, New York, United States
Abbie Hoffman (left) hugs Dr. Benjamin Spock at the peace rally in Central Park June 12. Their protests date back to the Vietnam War.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1984
White House, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
American pediatrician and activist Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903 - 1998) (second right) shakes hand with an unidentified man during a protest about unfair housing for the poor staged in front of the White House, Washington DC, October 16, 1984. At right is Spock's wife, fellow activist Mary Morgan Spock.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1984
White House, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
In front of the White House, American pediatrician and activist Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903 - 1998) is arrested by US Park Police during a protest about unfair housing for the poor, Washington DC, October 16, 1984.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1985
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Still fighting: Dr. Benjamin Spock and wife Mary Morgan arrived in Toronto; where Spock encouraged seniors to fight for their rights and for equality.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1987
Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States
Peace activist and author Dr. Benjamin Spock is helped over the fence into the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station January 17 as a military helicopter hovers overhead. Spock led a rally at the station to protest the test firing of the Trident II missile. He was 84 then.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1988
Capitol, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock, pioneering pediatrician, a political activist at housing protest being arrested again.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1988
Capitol, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock kisses his wife, Mary Morgan, as she is handcuffed by a police officer after being arrested at a demonstration on the Capitol grounds protesting the lack of affordable housing across the country.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1988
Capitol, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock' wife, Mary Morgan, as she is handcuffed by a police officer after being arrested at a demonstration on the Capitol grounds protesting the lack of affordable housing across the country.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1989
United States
American Pediatrician Benjamin Spock at the age of 86.
Gallery of Benjamin Spock
1994
Rizzoli's bookstore, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock attends a book signing at Rizzoli's bookstore in Manhattan. Dr. Spock's groundbreaking book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, first published in 1946, has been translated into 39 languages and has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.
Achievements
1968
United states
Laurann Wakefield with one of the signs for Dr. Benjamin Spock draft resistance movement is seen here. "We're your Babies," draft foes tell Spock. The pickets paraded peacefully during the rush hour.
The Yale Crews are hard at work for the coming racing season here. Photo show left to right, the members of the Yale Junior Crew; W. N. Ryerson, Bow; B. B. Pelly, Captain 2; T. F. D. Haines, 3; L. B. Lambert, 4; J. L. Miller, 5; W. I. Goodwin, 6; B. M. Spock, 7; K. A. Ives, stroke, and R. N. Barnard, Coxwain.
Yale crew 1924 at Gales Ferry- Seated Alfred Lindley, Alfred Wilson, Captain, James Rockefeller, Lester Miller, Frederich Sheffield, Leonard Carpenter. Standing- Edward Leader (coach), Howard Kingsbury, Benjamin Spock and William Robbins (Manager). Seated in front is Charles Stoddard, coxswains.
Rose Garden, White House, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
President Kennedy met at the White House with a group of physicians, most of them educators, who issued a statement afterwards favoring medical care for the aged under social security. Here the President chats with (left to right): Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Abraham Ribicoff; Dr. Caldwell B. Essel, Medical Director, the Rip Van Winkle Clinic, Hudson, NY; and Dr. Benjamin Spock, Professor of Child Development, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. The informal chat took place in the Rose Garden of the White House.
Capitol 1/22, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Benjamin Spock, one of the nation's foremost baby experts, appears to be getting some "private advice" from 3 1/2-year-old Jamie Reed, of Midland, Texas. Son of Mr. and Mrs. James Reed, administrative assistant to Democratic Representative Ed Foreman, at the Capitol 1/22. Spock had been waiting most of the day to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on the medicare bill.
Pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock is best known for his Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), which has sold more than 30 million copies and greatly influenced child-rearing practices.
Martin Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is flanked by a policeman as he is picketed by a group of Harvard students after leaving a house on Martin Street where he gave residents pamphlets asking them to join his "Vietnam Summer" program. At a press conference earlier King called for a national volunteer group of 10,000 persons to form a political bloc to end the war in Vietnam. In the background is Dr. Benjamin Spock of the Committee for Sane Nuclear Policy.
Walking arm-in-arm during the April 15 anti-Vietnam demonstration here are, From Left, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Martin Luther King, Monsignor Charles Rice, and Cleveland Robinson, Chairman of the Negro American Labor Council.
Doctor Benjamin Spock and Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. lead nearly 5,000 marchers through the Chicago Loop in protest of the United States policy in Vietnam.
Dr. Benjamin Spock speaks at a 1967 anti-Vietnam rally in Washington, D.C. The famous pediatrician resigned a professorship that year in order to devote his efforts to the antiwar cause and to the pursuit of world peace.
Federal District Court, New York City, New York, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock receives a kiss from his wife, Jane after he and three others were found guilty, June 14th, of conspiring to advise youths to evade the draft.
Federal District Court, New York City, New York, United States
Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Spock are shown on way to federal court (5/20) where the doctor and four other men go on trial on charges of counseling against the draft.
Laurann Wakefield with one of the signs for Dr. Benjamin Spock draft resistance movement is seen here. "We're your Babies," draft foes tell Spock. The pickets paraded peacefully during the rush hour.
Pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock smiles and shows the finger sign for peace. Dr. Spock is the author of the best selling child development book Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care written in 1946.
United States, New York City, New York, United States
Famed baby doctor, Dr. Benjamin Spock appears to have his hands full as he holds Andrew Chipman, I, who started to cry. A Boston Federal Court judge sentenced Dr. Spock and three other men to two years in prison for conspiring to counsel, aid and abet young men to evade the draft law. The other three men are; Yale Chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr. author Mitchell Goodman and Harvard graduate student Michael Ferber. All were released on bond pending an appeal.
Kitayama Brothers Greenhouse, Brighton, Colorado, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock Marches with pickets Tuesday at Kitayama Brothers Greenhouse near Brighton; Women pickets with a noted pediatrician and war foe are, from left, Mrs. Lupe Briseno and Mrs. Martha Del Real.
Chicago's Federal Building 10/29, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock, (r) purses his lips as Abbie Hoffman, (l) speaks at a news conference in Chicago's Federal Building 10/29, Hoffman is one of eight men on trial charged with conspiracy to incite riots during the Democratic National Convention. Dr. Spock, whose conviction on charges of conspiring to encourage draft evasion was recently overturned by the US Court of Appeals, said the conspiracy trial should be stopped.
Pediatrician, author, Olympic gold medalist and anti-Vietnam war activist Dr. Benjamin Spock calls the war "a total abomination" at the peace Moratorium on March 15, 1969, in Washington DC.
World famous child care specialist and opponent of the Vietnam war, Dr Benjamin Spock arrived in Sydney today for a three weeks National tour for the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign. He is pictured with his wife and Dr Jim Cairns, MHR. June 9, 1971.
World famous child care specialist and opponent of the Vietnam war, Dr. Benjamin Spock arrived in Sydney today for a three weeks National tour for the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign. He is pictured with his wife. June 9, 1971.
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock, the antiwar pediatrician (right) who is running for President as the People's Party candidate, chats with Vernon Bellcourt, a Chipawah, and one of the leaders of the dissident American Indians, outside of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Some 500 Indians were occupying the building.
A happy Dr. Benjamin Spock chats with black activist Julius Hobson as latter applauds Dr. Spock's nomination July 29 as the People's Pary's 1972 presidential candidate here, turning back an effort to nominate Democrat Sen. George S. McGovern of South Dakota. Hobson is expected to be nominated as Spock's vice presidential running mate.
Pediatrician Benjamin Spock says he expects the People's Party convention to retain him as its candidates for President rather than support Democrat George McGovern. Dr. Spock relaxing in his hotel room also said conveying his party's message to the people is "incomparable more difficult "because the Democrats' nominee is McGovern. The McGovern advocates at the four day convention, say a vote for the Senator on the People's Party ticket would be an endorsement of the Party's more liberal platform.
Capitol Rotunda, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Police arrested 121 antiwar demonstrators, including baby doctor Benjamin Spock (raising a clenched first) when they refused to halt a sit-in 5/16 in the US Capitol Rotunda and began singing patriotic songs.
American paediatrician, psychiatrist and pacifist Dr. Benjamin Spock addresses an audience during his election campaign as a candidate for the American presidency, running against George McGovern and Richard Nixon. His platform includes withdrawal of all American troops from everywhere, legalized abortion and marijuana, and amnesty for draft dodgers.
Peace activists Dr. Benjamin Spock, 70, and Jane Fonda appeared on a local tv talk show where the 35-year-old actress introduced her son to the famous pediatrician. Miss Fonda scheduled to speak at the City Club and ask for help for political prisoners in South Vietnam.
Dr. Benjamin Spock is laboring over a major, third revision of his best-selling "Baby and Child Care" to eliminate what he calls the book's "sexist" language and tone about babies and their parents. The result will be a new edition of the book Spock hopes will be less offensive to women.
156-5th Avenue, New York City, New York, United States
Peter Mahoney (left), Vietnam Veteran and Dr. Benjamin Spock shown in a pensive mood during press conference at the at the offices of the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice, 156-5th Avenue, New York, New York. July 18, 1977.
White House, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
American pediatrician and activist Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903 - 1998) (second right) shakes hand with an unidentified man during a protest about unfair housing for the poor staged in front of the White House, Washington DC, October 16, 1984. At right is Spock's wife, fellow activist Mary Morgan Spock.
White House, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
In front of the White House, American pediatrician and activist Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903 - 1998) is arrested by US Park Police during a protest about unfair housing for the poor, Washington DC, October 16, 1984.
Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States
Peace activist and author Dr. Benjamin Spock is helped over the fence into the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station January 17 as a military helicopter hovers overhead. Spock led a rally at the station to protest the test firing of the Trident II missile. He was 84 then.
Capitol, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock kisses his wife, Mary Morgan, as she is handcuffed by a police officer after being arrested at a demonstration on the Capitol grounds protesting the lack of affordable housing across the country.
Capitol, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock' wife, Mary Morgan, as she is handcuffed by a police officer after being arrested at a demonstration on the Capitol grounds protesting the lack of affordable housing across the country.
Rizzoli's bookstore, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Dr. Benjamin Spock attends a book signing at Rizzoli's bookstore in Manhattan. Dr. Spock's groundbreaking book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, first published in 1946, has been translated into 39 languages and has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.
(Generations of parents have relied on the influential bes...)
Generations of parents have relied on the influential bestseller Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care as the most authoritative and reliable guide for child care. This timeless yet up-to-date edition has been revised and expanded by Dr. Robert Needlman, a top-notch pediatrician who shares Dr. Spock’s philosophy and has applied his research in his career. In this tenth edition, you can gain the latest information on child development from birth through adolescence - including cutting-edge research on topics as crucial as immunizations, screen-time, childhood obesity, environmental health, and more. With a revised glossary of the newest and most common medications and a guide to reliable online resources, this vital handbook will help you become the best parent you can be.
(An essential guide for today's parents - from the world-r...)
An essential guide for today's parents - from the world-renowned pediatrician and author of Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care. In this classic text, Dr. Benjamin Spock addresses the changing of traditional family structure and the challenges contemporary parents face. From two-job families to single parenthood, this timely reference offers sound, reliable advice on today's difficult parenting issues, including: understanding the role of the modern father developing healthy eating habits adapting career demands to a baby's needs evaluating child care outside the home handling your child in public places dealing with sleeping problems teaching your child about strangers nurturing your child's potential talking to children about sex, disease, death, religion and God handling divorce and custody questions.
A Better World for Our Children: Rebuilding American Family Values
(The dean of American pediatricians reflects on the disint...)
The dean of American pediatricians reflects on the disintegration of American values and its resulting impact on our children, arguing that parents must change their emphasis from materialism to stress on responsibility, sharing, generosity, and service.
Dr. Spock's The School Years: The Emotional and Social Development of Children
(America's favorite pediatrician, Dr. Benjamin Spock has h...)
America's favorite pediatrician, Dr. Benjamin Spock has helped two generations of parents raise their kids with his timeless bestseller, Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care. Now, today's parents can rejoice: a new compilation of Dr. Spock's timeless advice is here! Filled with Dr. Spock's insightful writings on the fruition of a child to college-aged adult, this first-time collection of essays provides parents with timely information on topics such as: a child's fears and anger coping with everyday stress teaching a child values and responsibilities understanding and dealing with violence in contemporary culture effective discipline prioritizing school work dealing with peer pressure discussing love, sex, and AIDS step-parenting With Dr. Spock's The School Years, parents everywhere will return again and again to Dr. Spock for all of their child-rearing questions.
Benjamin Spock was an American pediatrician and political activist. His books on child-rearing, especially his Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, influenced generations of parents and made his name a household word.
Background
Ethnicity:
Benjamin Spock is of Dutch descent by his father's side and his Dutch ancestors spelled their family name as Spaak before migrating to the former colony of New Netherland.
Benjamin Spock was born on May 2, 1903, in New Haven, Connecticut, United States to the family of a Yale graduate and long-time general counsel of the New Haven Railroad Benjamin Ives Spock and Mildred Louise Stoughton. He was the first of six children born to his parents. Many of Spock's beliefs about child care originated with his own upbringing and his helping to care for his siblings.
Education
At his mother's charge, Benjamin Spock attended progressive, private schools throughout his childhood. He attended Hamden Hall Country Day School and Phillips Andover Academy.
In 1921 Spock began his first year at Yale University, followed by a summer job as a counselor for disabled children. At the home for crippled children, Spock watched an orthopedic operation, at which point he decided to become a pediatrician. He graduated from Yale University having previously won a gold medal as an oarsman at the 1924 Olympics as a member of the team trained at the university. He attended the Yale School of Medicine for two years before shifting to Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he graduated first in his class in 1929. After that, he trained for six years at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. He was the first psychoanalytically trained pediatrician in New York.
Between 1933 and 1944, Benjamin Spock practiced pediatric medicine, while at the same time teaching pediatrics at Cornell Medical College and consulting in pediatric psychiatry for the New York City Health Department. On a summer vacation in 1943, he began to write his most famous book, Baby and Child Care, and he continued to work on it from 1944 to 1946 while serving as a medical officer in the Navy.
The book sharply broke with the authoritarian tone and rigorous instructions found in earlier generations of baby-care books, most of which said to feed infants on a strict schedule and not to pick them up when they cried. Spock, who spent ten years trying to reconcile his psychoanalytic training with what mothers were telling him about their children, told his readers "You know more than you think you do. Don't be afraid to trust your own common sense. Take it easy, trust your own instincts, and follow the directions that your doctor gives you." The response was overwhelming. Baby and Child Care rapidly became America's all-time best-seller except for Shakespeare and the Bible; by 1976, it had also eclipsed Shakespeare.
After his discharge from the Navy, Spock became associated with the famous Mayo Clinic (1947-1951) and then became a professor of child development at the University of Pittsburgh (1951-1955) and at Case Western Reserve (1955-1967). His political activism began during this period, growing logically out of his concern for children. A healthy environment for growing children, he believed, included a radiation-free atmosphere to breathe and so, in 1962, he became co-chairman of SANE (National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy), an organization dedicated to stopping nuclear bomb tests in the Earth's atmosphere. The following year, in which the United States did ratify a nuclear test ban treaty, he campaigned for Medicare, incurring the wrath of the American Medical Association, many of whose members were already suspicious of a colleague who wrote advice columns for the Ladies Home Journal and Redbook instead of writing technical monographs for the medical journals.
Two books published in 1970, Decent and Indecent: Our Personal and Political Behavior and A Teenager's Guide to Life and Love, made it clear that Spock was a good deal more of a traditional moralist than either his friends or his enemies were aware. He had been driven into the antiwar and other reform movements by the same imperious, old-fashioned conscience that propelled some of his opponents in exactly the opposite direction.
Formally retired in 1967, Spock was the kind of person who in spirit never really retires. Contemplating his own death as his health began to fail in the 1980s, he wrote in 1985 (at the age of 82) that he did not want any lugubrious funeral tunes played over him: "My ideal would be the New Orleans black funeral, in which friends snake-dance through the streets to the music of a jazz band." He had chronic bronchitis and suffered a stroke in 1989. His wife, Mary, collaborated with Spock on his autobiography, Spock on Spock, which was published in 1989. His book A Better World for Our Children was published in 1994 and explored the relationship between child-rearing and politics.
Benjamin Spock was an Atheist but he wasn't an anti-religious activist. In fact, what he proposed was religious freedom.
Politics
If Benjamin Spock did not espouse opposition in his pediatrics, he embraced it in his politics. Even before the war in Vietnam, he warned against the dangers of nuclear testing and served as co-chairman of the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. He was a vocal opponent of the war, helped lead the march on the Pentagon in 1967.
On May 20, 1968, along with several other leading war protesters, Spock was put on trial for conspiracy. The charge was that he had counseled young people to resist the draft. In the superheated political atmosphere of the times, he was convicted, but on appeal, the verdict was set aside on a technicality. Some indignant readers returned their well-thumbed copies of Baby and Child Care in order to prevent further undermining of their children's patriotism. To many other readers, however, the government's indictment of the baby doctor seemed rather like prosecuting Santa Claus.
As the war escalated, so did antiwar protest, in which Spock participated vigorously, marching and demonstrating with militant youths who had not yet been born when he began his medical career. Conservatives accused him of having created, in large measure, the youth protest movement of the 1960s. He had been driven into the antiwar and other reform movements by the same imperious, old-fashioned conscience that propelled some of his opponents in exactly the opposite direction. He ran for president in 1972 as the candidate of the People’s Party with a platform that called for free medical care; the repeal of "victimless crime" laws, including the legalization of abortion, homosexuality, and cannabis; a guaranteed minimum income for families; and for an end to American military interventionism and the immediate withdrawal of all American troops from foreign countries.
Past the age of seventy, Spock was arrested for protesting against a nuclear power plant in New Hampshire, budget cuts at the White House, and nuclear weapons at the Pentagon. Past eighty, Spock still gave as many as a hundred talks a year on the nuclear arms race.
Views
The generation most influenced by Dr. Spock was the baby-boom generation, which would give the second half of the twentieth century many of its characteristics. The significant increase in the number of babies born in 1946 over those born in 1945 is attributable to the return of veterans of the war to their current or future wives. In 1945 2,873,000 babies were born compared to 3,500,000 in 1946, a 20 percent increase. In 1954 the number increased to 4,000,000 and remained high through 1964, the last year of the baby-boom generation. The sheer number of babies born at the same time gave tremendous importance to Dr. Spock's writings and teachings. Dr. Spock's opinions would shape the first generation of children born into the United States that was a dominant world power.
As the baby boomers have aged, Dr. Spock has been criticized for preaching permissiveness and was held responsible for a "Spock-marked" generation of hippies. Such criticism should certainly be put in perspective. There is no doubt that Spock did endorse beliefs held by the younger generation. He certainly was neither a fundamentalist of any kind nor an arch-conservative. He joined protests against nuclear technology and the Vietnam war. While Vice President Spiro Agnew accused him of corrupting the youth of America, Dr. Spock only took credit, though, for having a "mild influence." His message had not been to substitute the preaching of a "doctor" for sound parental judgment. This included a measure of discipline and parental authority. Respecting and understanding children was not letting them do anything they wanted. Contrary to the claims of his critics, Dr. Spock was always a firm believer in sound, responsible parental authority.
The basic message Dr. Spock sent to parents remains a message of respect in all possible ways: respect for parents by a health professional, respect for children by parents, respect for parents by children. It is a deeply humanist message, stating that the real values are always individual values, that the only valid judgment is the judgment made by responsible individuals. It is the very opposite of cults and of every theory or system that would diminish, reduce, or even annihilate the fundamental duty that we have to our individual decision-making process, in child rearing or in any other matters. Dr. Spock left a deep impression of wisdom.
Quotations:
"Respect children because they deserve respect, and they'll grow up to be better people. But I've always said, ask for respect from your children, ask for cooperation, ask for politeness. Give your children firm leadership."
"Strictness or permissiveness is not the real issue. Good-hearted parents who aren't afraid to be firm when it is necessary can get good results with either moderate strictness or moderate permissiveness. On the other hand, a strictness that comes from harsh feelings or a permissiveness that is timid or vacillating can each lead to poor results."
"Don't take too seriously all that the neighbors say. Don't be overawed by what the experts say. Trust yourself, you know more than you think you know."
Membership
Zeta Psi
,
United States
National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy
,
United States
Personality
Dr. Spock was charming and interacted easily with mothers and their children. He had a very easygoing manner and writing style, giving parents permission to make their own choices concerning how to raise their children. He had strict personal upbringing and acute moral sense. At the same time, he showed himself capable of growing and changing. He was also capable of admitting a mistake.
Interests
Philosophers & Thinkers
Sigmund Freud, John Dewey
Sport & Clubs
rowing
Connections
Benjamin Spock married Jane Davenport Cheney in 1927, whom he had met after a Yale-Harvard boat race and with whom he had two sons, Michael and John. The marriage would end in divorce after 48 years. In 1976, Spock married Mary Morgan.
Dr. Spock: An American Life
Offers an incisive portrait of a man made famous by his revolutionary ideas on child rearing, who led a surprisingly troubled personal life, marred by the alcoholism of his first wife, failures as a father and husband, and the suicide of his own grandson.
1998
Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166
This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.