The Middle Ages (800–1400) were a rich and vibrant period in the history of European culture, society, and intellectual thought. Emerging state powers, economic expansion and contraction, the growing influence of the Christian Church, and demographic change all influenced the ideals and realities of childhood and family life. Movements for Church reform brought the spiritual and moral concerns of the laity into sharper focus, profoundly shaping attitudes towards gender and sexuality and how these might be applied to family roles. At the same time, the growth of trade, the spread of literacy and learning, shifting patterns of settlement, and the process of urbanization transformed childhood. This volume explores the ideas and practices which underpinned contemporary perceptions of childhood in the medieval West, and illuminates the enduring importance of the family as a dynamic economic, political, and social unit. A Cultural History of Childhood and Family in the Middle Ages presents essays on family relationships, community, economy, geography and the environment, education, life cycle, the state, faith and religion, health and science, and world contexts.

Childhood and families had a ubiquitous and central presence in the ancient world, but one which is often hidden from us. Underlying our understanding of childhood and the family in Antiquity are the key thinkers and writers of the period. Their ideas on children, growing up, and the stages of life have shaped thinking on these subjects right up to the present day. Focusing on the cultures of the Mediterranean from 800 BCE to 800 CE, A Cultural History of Childhood and Family in Antiquity covers the rise of democratic Athens, the Hellenistic World, and the evolution and transformation of the Roman Empire. As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Childhood and Family set, this volume presents essays on family relations, community, economy, geography and environment, education, life cycle, the state, faith and religion, health and science, and world contexts.

An authoritative history of the subject in a 6 volume series. The volumes cover Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Early Modern Age, the Enlightenment, the Age of Empire, and the Modern Age.

Inquiring into childhood is one of the most appropriate ways to address the perennial and essential question of what it is that makes human beings – each of us – human. In Childhood in History: Perceptions of Children in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Aasgaard, Horn, and Cojocaru bring together the groundbreaking work of nineteen leading scholars in order to advance interdisciplinary historical research into ideas about children and childhood in the premodern history of European civilization. The volume gathers rich insights from fields as varied as pedagogy and medicine, and literature and history. Drawing on a range of sources in genres that extend from philosophical, theological, and educational treatises to law, art, and poetry, from hagiography and autobiography to school lessons and sagas, these studies aim to bring together these diverse fields and source materials, and to allow the development of new conversations. This book will have fulfilled its unifying and explicit goal if it provides an impetus to further research in social and intellectual history, and if it prompts both researchers and the interested wider public to ask new questions about the experiences of children, and to listen to their voices.

Few people living in 1900 could have imagined what life would be like for children and families by the start of the 21st Century. The 20th Century brought improved nutrition, widespread immunization, lower mortality rates, greater access to schooling, more opportunities for communication and learning, and better legal protection for children. However, these achievements should be balanced by a recognition of the failure to protect and promote "the best interests of the child" and the family over this period. Wars, economic depression, exploitation, commodification, abuse, and discrimination – on the basis of ethnicity, race, gender, and class – all damaged children and families in the 20th Century. As with all the volumes in the Cultural History of Childhood and Family set, this volume presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on family relationships, community, economy, environment, education, life cycle, child and state, faith and religion, health and science, and world contexts.

Colin Heywood's classic account of childhood from the early Middle Ages to the First World War combines a long-run historical perspective with a broad geographical spread. This new, comprehensively updated edition incorporates the findings of the most recent research, and in particular revises and expands the sections on theoretical developments in the 'new social studies of childhood', on medieval conceptions of the child, on parenting and on children’s literature. Rather than merely narrating their experiences from the perspectives of adults, Heywood incorporates children’s testimonies, 'looking up' as well as 'down'. Paying careful attention to elements of continuity as well as change, he tells a story of astonishing material improvement for the lives of children in advanced societies, while showing how the business of preparing for adulthood became more and more complicated and fraught with emotional difficulties. Rich with evocative details of everyday life, and providing the most concise and readable synthesis of the literature available, Heywood's book will be indispensable to all those interested in the study of childhood.

Combining advocacy and memoir with social and cultural history, this book offers a comparative, cross-cultural survey of the whole history of adoption that is grounded in the author's personal experience.