A History of Childhood (eBook)

Colin Heywood is Emeritus Professor of Modern French History at the University of Nottingham.

* Contents

* Acknowledgements

* Introduction

* Part I: Changing Conceptions of Childhood

* 1 Conceptions of Childhood in the Middle Ages

* 2 The Quest for a Turning Point

* 3 Some Themes in the Cultural History of Childhood

* Part II: Growing up in the Family

* 4 The Start of a New Life

* 5 A Precarious Infancy

* 6 Early Childhood, Age Two to Seven

* 7 Later Childhood, Age Seven to Fourteen

* Part III: Children in a Wider World

* 8 Children at Work in Agricultural Societies

* 9 Child Labour and Industrialization

* 10 Children's Leisure Activities

* 11 Children's Health

* 11 The Child and the School

* Conclusion

* Notes

* Select Bibliography

* Index

"This is a lively, accessible and compelling overview of how childhood has been thought about and experienced over the last 800 years. Grounded in recent scholarship it provides a very effective summary of key debates, approaches and themes. It is an excellent introduction to the topic for students, and essential reading for all those interested in the ways in which children's lives have changed for better or worse across time."
Louise Jackson, University of Edinburgh

"Anyone interested in the history of childhood will do well to start with Heywood's fine work. It covers necessary topics, like child labor, schooling and health, but also subtler ones including child agency, the relationship of children to good and evil and the "value" of children. It is also a great read."
Carl Ipsen, Indiana University

"Looking for a good book about childhood's past, I waited for the new Second Edition of A History of Childhood. Although written with scholarly correctness, it's accessible, and it turns out to be a pretty good story, too."
Howard Blumenthal, Digital Insider