Includes bibliographical references (pages 123-131) and index.
Contents:
Traditions -- Revolutions -- The rise of "modern" childhoods -- Creating a worldview of childhood -- The century of the child and beyond.
Summary:
The definition of childhood and the experience of being a child varies radically across time, place, class, ethnicity, and culture. This ... succinct global history of childhood examines the impact of migration, industrialization, imperialism, and war on children's lives, and how far-reaching shifts in te ecomnomy, belief systems, and family structure dramatically altered parenting practices, education, and stages of development. Challenging the simplistic view of childhood as story of unambiguous progress, [Marten] demonstrates that children offer an ideal lens through which to understand world history."--Back cover. "While children are a relatively unchanging fact of life, childhood is a constantly shifting concept. Through the millennia, the age at which a child becomes a youth and a youth becomes an adult has varied by gender, class, religion, ethnicity, place, and economic need. As author James Marten explores in this Very Short Introduction, so too have the realities of childhood, each life shaped by factors such as education, expectation, and conflict (or lack thereof). Indeed, ancient Roman children lived very differently than those born of today's Generation Z. Experiences of childhood have been shaped in classrooms and on factory floors, in family homes and orphanages, and on battlefields and in front of television sets. In addressing this diversity, The History of Childhood: A Very Short Introduction takes a global, expansive view of the features of childhood that have shaped childhood throughout history and continue to shape it now. From the rules of Confucian childrearing in twelfth-century China to the struggles of children living as slaves in the Americas or as cotton mill workers in Industrial Age Britain, Marten takes his inspiration from the idea that the lives of children reveal important and sometimes uncomfortable truths about civilization."--Publisher information.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.