I learned about this series at AWP, where all the writers afterwards talked about the books they would write if they were to write their own object lesson. The stroller has such a compelling history (and present!), and as a mother of middle grade children, it was nice to be oddly nostalgic about the small periods when I wasn't carrying my child on my hip. I love the myriad ways Parrish Morgan addresses the idea of the stroller--from function to aesthetic to capitalistic container.

I read non-fiction books because I love to learn. I thought this book would be quite interesting and quite engaging, and while some of the information is great it missed the mark for me.

I see how there will be audiences that love the content and gain great value from it.

I appreciate the opportunity to have read the book.

Full disclosure: I own the stroller that is on the cover of this book, so of course it piqued my interest. This book might convince you to add strollers to the list of baby products that are made more for parent's convenience than for baby's enjoyment (right after sippy cups and baby walkers). I found this book's exploration of modern parenthood absolutely fascinating and honestly helpful as I build my own philosophy of parenting.

Amanda Parrish Morgan, Stroller, Bloomsbury Academic 2022.

Stoller is another addition to the delightful series, The Object Lessons, published by Bloomsbury Academic. The series takes what appear to be simple items and develops a well-researched story around them. Amanda Parrish Morgan’s Stroller is an excellent contribution to the series, with its accessible language, personal anecdote, research and political observations.

The book begins with a list of the other publications in this series – a veritable host of objects that make one wonder how they can become the focus of an interesting book – a refrigerator? Office? Password? Rust? Sticker? Like Sticker, (the first in this series I read, enjoyed and reviewed) Stroller makes an impact that is beyond the title.

Amanda Parrish Morgan begins with A Taxonomy of Strollers – a chapter that immediately introduces the reader to the variety of words, phrases, types and descriptions that encompass that simple item – the stroller. Starting with the simple statements ‘one who strolls’ and ‘baby commodity’ the list moves on to the various names given this item, the wide range of items encompassed by the simple description, stroller, to an anecdote that introduces the way in which this book will embrace the personal, political and mechanics of the stroller. Moving from a simple married life to one with children brought Parrish Morgan into the world of the stroller, and what a world she found it.

The chapter headings provide an insight into the topics to be covered: Baby Products and Babies as Products; Child-Friendly and Child-Centric; Carry the Baby; The Pram in the Hall; Prams of Good and Evil; My Years of Magical Worrying; Get Your Body Back; Strolling; and A Taxonomy of Stroller as Metaphor. There are excellent photographs, personal and political; and a list of works cited. The latter includes interviews, articles, books, fiction and paintings.

Considering a couple of chapters in detail seems to me to be a useful way of demonstrating the fascinating approach taken by Amanda Parrish Morgan, to that deceptively simple item, the stroller.

The Pram in the Hall brings together reminiscences from creative people whose lives have been impacted by the advent of children, and the pram in the hall, from its early days of a comfortable, largish receptacle for moving a prone baby through a neighbourhood, to the lighter article that will accommodate one child seated; and to the stroller in an iteration that must house both the prone baby and active, but likely to tire toddler. Where in all of this stands the artist? How does creativity work against the demands of the stroller? Various stories are told, some positive about the way in which the pram in the hall has enhanced their creativity, some suggesting that it has impeded them. These stories are such a contribution to the understanding of creativity, parenthood and what can be life enhancing. Amanda Parrish Morgan’s story of the impact of listening to Frozen in the car instead of All things Considered is a delight – as are her earlier stories of running with a stroller specially devised for that purpose.

The last, short chapter, A Taxonomy of Stroller as Metaphor, sums up what Amanda Parrish Morgan has found, and what the reader has learnt in this fascinating journey. The stroller as a consumer item – what does it entail - Caring? Danger? A threat to creativity? Convenience? Or its opposite? What does the stroller do – push your child away? Keep the child close? This chapter brings together, in a simple form, the important political nature of the act of buying a stroller, choosing it for a particular lifestyle, comparing it with the other options available, cost and competition between purchasers and the appearance they want to foster. In a simple form all the points that have been made in detail throughout the book are made here, while the detailed chapters provide the reader with a lively story of an item they see every day, and possibly have used themselves.

This is a truly interesting book, in a series that encourages a new look at the items we use and observe. I enjoyed it.

Parrish shares the story of strollers and prams throughout history. It includes personal anecdotes, history, research and more.

This is the type of book that I typically enjoy very much. Ruminations on parenting are very interesting to me. However I felt it was a bit disconnected and I struggled to find a through-line. The purpose of writing was not clearly defined, nor was the purpose of reading. I enjoyed the anecdotes, but I felt disconnected from the book and the topic even though I feel a personal connection to strollers, running, the tension between attachment parenting and free-range parenting.

This is an interesting fun read about strollers and the Sauthor‘s love-hate relationship with them I must say I really enjoyed the chapter talking about her running and wish that would’ve been expounding on more also I think a lot of the people the author refers to in the book has too much time to think I did like her comparison with the Maggie Gyllenhaal movie and the two inclusive parent but my favorite was the history of the stroller. This book is perfect for when you just have a few minutes to Peru’s the book but it is totally worth reading even the titles of the chapters are interesting. This was a really great read. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I was very intrigued by this book, and although I’m way past the stage of my children requiring the use of a stroller, the premise was enough for me to request a copy of this book.

I understand there is a full range of Object Lessons books, and like this one - provide some insight into an everyday object, such as the stroller. Making you think about these objects, their purpose and how they fit into our lives.

It was an interesting and entertaining read, looking at this object from different perspectives, both male and female from around the world.

Of the four Object Lessons books I've read so far, this is by far the most personal. It's really quite remarkably personal, actually, and I admire Morgan for what she says about herself to illustrate the points she's making more broadly about society.

While the focus of the book is the stroller (or pram), this is very much a book about motherhood, mothering, expectations on and of mothers, and how consumer goods like the stroller fit within that. I am not a mother, but even I know some of the pressures and expectations from society imposed on, and internalised by, mothers. Morgan describes herself as someone who didn't expect to be a mother from early on; and as someone whose identity was strongly tied to being a runner. Both of these things influenced the way she perceived maternity, and the stroller. Her early recounting of telling a (not-mother) friend that she's going to try and have a baby, and the quite awful reaction from that friend ("That'll be the end of all your running", p6), sets up a lot of what Morgan picks up through the book (and made me worriedly think back to how I've reacted to child-announcements from friends. I don't think I've ever been that awful?). Morgan relates her experiences of juggling not wanting to fall into the 'must have everything' trap, to not be swayed by alarmist or aspirational advertising. She talks about juggling routines, two preschools, her own desire to run (between two preschools, with a double stroller); and she relays the commentary she received from onlookers, too, which honestly just made me mad.

Morgan mixes in academic discussion, too: of how American society emphasises the 'production' part of 'reproduction', with the mother as unskilled worker; the use of the word 'labour' and 'delivery' and what they suggest about the relationship between mother and child and the whole process of the second leaving the first. And then how baby products get tied into identity, and parenting strategies, and what all of those things mean and say about you and your choices. It emphasised a lot of things for me: just how harshly mothers are treated sometimes, how many minefields need to be navigated, and how unapproachable so many of our cities and spaces are. Also, my goodness it's harder in America than in Australia (paid maternity leave, etc).

It's not quite the book I was expecting - there's not a huge in-depth history of strollers and their alternatives, for instance, although there is some - but it was nonetheless engrossing and... well, I want to say enjoyable, but that's not quite the right word. I read it quickly and with fascination.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It had me turned pages without even realizing. It was so good!

This title is part of a series called Object Lessons. Each relatively short entry gives a detailed view of a common object-here we have the stroller. It is that most iconic of parent purchases. It is an object that publicly states something about each family, in my opinion. I have seen a lot of social pressure around which one of these a family chooses and how it seemingly reflects on them.

This book is framed by the author telling readers something about herself and her decision to be a parent. Her children then enter the scene as do their transportation systems.

From this beginning, comes a lot of information about strollers, beginning with their history. There are some fascinating photos accompanying the text. I would bet that not all readers would know that there was a “gas safe pram” for use during war time. However I was most struck by how the topic of the pram offered the author an excellent opportunity to talk about parenthood and children.

This book is quite interesting and deserves an audience wider than the title may indicate.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for this title. All opinions are my own.

Welcome back to the series of books on subjects you'd never have expected to find yourself reading about, and in this instance a pure, hard-and-fast non-breeder looks at strollers, prams and baby buggies. Go figure – it's the pull of a series that can definitely get you tearing your hair out much more than it can end up educating. Luckily, this is one of the better examples.

Oftentimes the series is too autobiographical, and while a lot of this refers to the author and the histories of her two children and their strollers, it's done much more readably than is the norm. There's the question of how do you equate toting a baby when a lot of your pre-natal life has involved running. Do other countries have the same approach to prams, which in America seems to be 'spend as much as possible, because it's not like something else will be better serving young'un's development – oh, and forget about using public transport til your youngest is five'. We watch prams descend pell mell in Battleship Potemkin, Ghostbusters 2, that there risible effort called The Untouchables, and The Witches. And we touch again on the social pressure to not succumb to "parental inadequacy", whether it being in keeping toddler close-by 24/7, providing a stroller with enough mobile phone pockets, or factoring in any fictionalised risk before spending double what you ought to.

The thing is, however, this is a book that writes around the subject, and not about it. A later chapter returning to running pre- and post-birth is really quite irrelevant. We get some of the semiotics behind the stroller, but none of the history, none of the social messages of the pram to anything like an academic level, and in the end this moves towards its end path like a mobile hung above a pram, slapped by a carefree and careless baby hand.

I am savvy enough a reader of Object Lesson books to know that what the book says they are about isn't always what they are actually about. And whilst Stroller could happily be titled "The Consumer Paradox In Demeaning American Mothers", there is actually a much more solid chunk about Baby Strollers and Prams there. Though only for the fact that the book has to take on Pram's as a secondary subject will I allow zero mention of the most famous pram in movie poster history - that on the poster of Rosemary's Baby (its an odd omission considering how much mileage she gets out of the Odessa Steps in Battleship Potemkin). There is something rather sweet about Morgan striding into another battle about how capitalism has replaced community with consumerism by quickly throwing in a fact about $2999 strollers.

The hook here, and Morgan's particular expertise, comes from the running stroller - a device which promises that you can continue your running schedule post birth whilst bonding with your child. Notwithstanding the lunatic caricature played by Maggie Gyllenhall in Away We Go ("why would I want to push my baby away from me") this device promises independence and childbirth be a mere blip in your life. Morgan deconstructs that lie, and others, whilst wondering how US society got to be so child-unfriendly that the solution to all problems is "buy another thing" (a digression on covid oxygen monitors which never worked is rather satisfying). And actually, as a corrective the book works quite well, not least because the mindset of a prospective mother might actually accidentally buy a short book called Strollers to find out about the best Strollers (or Strollers s baby wearing) and be given some of the views here. Its certainly not a self-help book, and it perhaps ends a little weakly (motherhood is tough but fleeting), but she nails her point politically and tells you that yes you can run with a double running stroller - but never expect to do it well, or anything like you used to. Oh and don't get sponsored by Nike.