This invaluable introduction to the history of childhood in both Western and Eastern Europe between c.1700 and 2000 seeks to give a voice to children as well as adults, wherever possible. The work is divided into three parts, covering in turn, childhood in rural village societies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; in the towns during the Industrial Revolution period (c.1750-1870); and in society generally during the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each part has a succinct introduction to a number of key topics, such as conceptions of childhood; infant and child mortality; the material conditions of children; their cultural life; the welfare facilities available to them from charities and the state; and the balance of work and schooling. Combining a chronological with a thematic approach, this book will be of particular interest to students and academics in a number of disciplines, including history, sociology, anthropology, geography, literature and education.
Introduction; Part I. Childhood in the Villages, Eighteenth-Nineteenth Centuries: 1. Conceptions of childhood in rural society; 2. Growing up in the villages; 3. Work, education and religion for children in the countryside; Part II. Childhood in the Towns, c.1700-c.1870: 4. Enlightenment and Romanticism; 5. Middle- and upper-class childhoods in the towns, c.1700-1870; 6. The 'lower depths': working-class children in the early industrial town; 7. Work versus school during the Industrial Revolution; Part III. Childhood in an Industrial and Urban Society, c.1870-c.2000: 8. The scientific approach to childhood; 9. Growing up during the twentieth century (1): in the family and on the margins of society; 10. Growing up during the twentieth century (2): light and shade in an affluent society; 11. Work and school in an urban-industrial society; Conclusion.
