Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500 (Studies In Modern History)

Description

Updated to incorporate recent scholarship on the subject, this new edition of Hugh Cunningham’s classic text 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 500 years. Through his engaging narrative Hugh Cunningham tells the story of the development of ideas from the Renaissance to the present, revealing considerable differences in the way Western societies 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. Since the book’s first publication in 1995, the volume of historical research on children and childhood has escalated hugely and is testimony to the level of concern provoked by the dominance of the negative narrative that originated in the 1970s and 1980s. A new epilogue revisits the volume from today’s perspective, analysing why this negative narrative established dominance in Western society and considering how it has affected historical writing about children and childhood, enabling the reader to put both this volume and recent debates into context. Supported by an updated historiographical discussion and expanded bibliography, Children and Childhood in Western Society since 1500 remains an essential resource for students of the history of childhood, the history of the family, social history and gender history. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures 1. Introduction The historiography of childhood 2. Children and childhood in ancient and medieval Europe The classical inheritance Christianity The Middle Ages 3. The development of a middle-class ideology of childhood, 1500–1900 Humanism Protestantism Catholicism The eighteenth century The influence of Romanticism 4. Family, work and school, 1500–1900 The peasant family Proto-industrialisation Industrialisation Demography Community Schooling Interest and emotion 5. Children, philanthropy and the state in Europe, 1500–1860 Children and poverty Schooling 1750–1860 6. Saving the children, c.1830–c.1920 Child labour Street children Cruelty to children Philanthropy, the state and children State concerns and children’s rights 7. ‘The century of the child’? Science, experts and childhood Children and social policy Parents and children Childhood under threat 8. Conclusion 9. Epilogue: 1995–2020 Guide to further reading Index