Childhood in World History

Filling a gap in a field with very few teaching books available, Childhood in World History provides a much-needed historical overview. Studying childhood historically greatly advances our understanding of what childhood is about, and a world history focus permits broad questions to be asked.

Peter N. Stearns, an esteemed name in the field, focuses on childhood in several ways:

• childhood across change – the shift from hunting and gathering to an agricultural society, the impact of civilization, and the emergence of major religions
• new and old debates about the distinctive features of Western childhood, including child labour
• the emergence of a modern, industrial pattern of childhood in the West, Japan and communist societies, focusing on education and economic independence
• globalization and the spread of child-centred consumerism.

Highlighting the gains, the divisions, and the losses for children across the millennia, this fascinating book will appeal to students across the board, and will prove an excellent teaching resource.

1. Introduction: Childhood in World History  2. Childhood in Agricultural Societies: The First Big Changes  3. Childhood in the Classical Civilizations  4. Childhood in Postclassical World History: The Impact of Religious Change  5. Debating Childhood in the Premodern West  6. Forces of Change and the Modern Model of Childhood Developments in the West, Eighteenth Century – 1914  7. Alongside the Modern Model: The Pressures of Colonialism  8. Modern Childhood in Asia: Japan Adapts the New Model  9. Childhood and Communist Revolutions  10. Childhood in the Affluent Societies, Twentieth – Twenty-First Centuries  11. The Dislocations in the Twentieth–Twenty-First Centuries: Children Face War and Violence  12. Globalization and Childhoods  13. Conclusion: Childhoods From Past Toward Future