On July 14th, 1946, at the dawn of the post-World War II baby boom, Dr. Benjamin Spock published The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. It would become a foundational work on the topic of parenting, transforming how generations of children were raised.
The book, which has sold more than 50 million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages, stands as one of the best-selling nonfiction works of the 20th century. A culmination of more than 20 years of scholarship—and written over seven years with his wife Jane—the book debuted a revolutionary approach to child-rearing, all delivered in a warm, congenial tone.
Spock first began learning about children as a big brother helping to raise five younger siblings. A champion rower who won a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics, he went on to earn a medical degree at Columbia University with a focus on pediatrics, followed by six years studying psychology at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. The dual approach would inform Spock’s fresh perspective.
His work radically departed from popular parenting edicts popular of the time that emphasized strict schedules, strong discipline, conformity of behavior and minimal displays of affection. Typical of the time was child psychologist John B. Watson's 1930 book Behaviorism, in which he wrote, “Never, never hug or kiss them, never let them sit in your lap. If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say goodnight. Shake hands with them in the morning.”
Dr. Spock advocated a more hands-on, affectionate approach that encouraged parents to follow their common-sense instincts—for example, to feed a hungry, wailing baby rather than adhere to an inflexible feeding schedule. Instead of keeping children at arm's length, he advocated that parents spend quality time bonding with their children and nurturing their individuality. To critics who blamed him for an epidemic of overindulged young people, he once said, “I didn't want to encourage permissiveness, but rather to relax rigidity.”
The book’s trademark humor and wit softened its then-radical advice: that parenting could be enjoyable, that fathers should play an active role in raising their children, that picking a baby up if they cry would not spoil the baby, and that it was natural for some mother’s to experience “the blue feeling” now known as postpartum depression.
Always open to discovery and new ways of thinking, Spock vowed to keep updating and revising the book “as long as I live.” He last worked on the book’s seventh edition, which was released posthumously on his 95th birthday in 1998, six months after his death. The book is currently in its 10th edition.
In the decades after publishing what would become a worldwide childcare bible, Benjamin Spock gained renown for his political activism. He became a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, the military draft and nuclear weapons; in 1968, he was convicted for aiding draft resisters. In 1972, he ran—and lost—as the People’s Party’s presidential candidate.
