Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500

This book investigates the relationship between ideas about childhood and the actual experience of being a child, and assesses how it has changed over the span of five hundred years. Hugh Cunningham tells an engaging story of the development of ideas about childhood from the Renaissance to the present, including Locke, Rosseau, Wordsworth and Freud, revealing considerable differences in the way western societites have understood and valued childhood over time. His survey of parent/child relationships uncovers evidence of parental love, care and, in the frequent cases of child death, grief throughout the period, concluding that there was as much continuity as change in the actual relations of children and adults across these five centuries. For undergraduate courses in History of the Family, European Social History, History of Children and Gender History.

ISBN 0582784530   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780582784536 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 398 Publisher Pearson Education Limited   Published in Harlow Imprint Longman   Series title Studies in Modern History Format Paperback   Previous ISBN 9780582238541 Publication date 03 Mar 2005   Height (mm) 234 Library of Congress HQ767.87.C   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 305.23   Spine width (mm) 12 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General Pages 256

1		Introduction		1
2		Children and childhood in ancient and medieval Europe		18
3		The development of a middle-class ideology of childhood, 1500-1900		41
4		Family, work and school, 1500-1900		81
5		Children, philanthropy and the state in Europe, 1500-1860		114
6		Saving the children, c.1830-c.1920		137
7		'The century of the child'?		171
8		Conclusion		201

'...a most elegant survey of ideas about childhood and of children's lives in modern western society! a stimulating yet accessible analysis of a part of human experience so difficult for the historian to uncover.' Lynn Abrams, Professor of Gender History, University of Glasgow '!necessary reading for those seeking a fuller understanding of modern childhood.' John Stewart, Principal Lecturer in History, OxfordBrookesUniversity About the first edition: '!an excellent and accessible starting point.' Anthony Fletcher, Universityof London 'Any reader in search of a clear, well-written, and comprehensive account of the history of children and childhood could ask for nothing better.' Victor Slater, Department of History, LouisianaStateUniversity

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