When kids ran the world: a forgotten history of the junior republic movement

14 to 21-year-olds successfully emulated the United States government in the early 1900s. In an era when public opinion favoured sheltering young people from adult society, the Freeville republic and its many descendants immersed them in carefully designed models of that society instead. Jennifer S. Light, an MIT professor and author, tells us its peculiar history in The MIT Press Reader. This story was originally published in The MIT Press Reader in October 2020.