A study was made of fictional works in children's literature of the past century to establish the possible relationships between themes of children's stories and the political, social, and cultural events in American society from 1850 to 1964. The six themes which consistently appeared concerned the problems of growing up, the search for values, travel and people in foreign lands, lives of heroes, fun and fairy tales, and the desire to know. The popularity of these themes fluctuated according to historical climate--e.g., Horatio Alger stories and didactic books were popular during such times of national turmoil as the Civil War; the "urge to know" books were popular during the development of social consciousness around the turn of the century; and fun stories and fairy tales were popular during times of prosperity. (A bibliography on children's literature is included.) (MP)