Childhood

Childhood was for long a neglected aspect of social history, although there have been notable exceptions in England, such as the works of Mary Anne Everett Green (cited under Biographical Works about Children), F. J. Furnivall (cited under Literary Works about Children), and Dorothy Gardiner (cited under General Works). Most research on the subject has taken place since the 1980s, producing a rich and varied literature that ranges through birth and nursing, the archaeology and pathology of child burials, upbringing, religion, representations in art, schooling, literature for...

Childhood was for long a neglected aspect of social history, although there have been notable exceptions in England, such as the works of Mary Anne Everett Green (cited under Biographical Works about Children), F. J. Furnivall (cited under Literary Works about Children), and Dorothy Gardiner (cited under General Works). Most research on the subject has taken place since the 1980s, producing a rich and varied literature that ranges through birth and nursing, the archaeology and pathology of child burials, upbringing, religion, representations in art, schooling, literature for children, work, and adolescence. Of these topics, schooling is discussed in the Oxford Bibliographies article Schools in Britain. Notwithstanding this achievement, childhood has not yet gained acceptance as a natural part of historians’ work in the way that women’s history has done. Many monographs and textbooks still ignore it, even when childhood generates relevant or essential material to the task in hand.