ABSTRACT
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Emile: or On Education", published in 1762, sold less well, but was more influential in nineteenth century ideas on child upbringing. His book, written for mothers begins with a cry to parents to allow the innate goodness of children to emerge with the minimum of interference. The first half of the nineteenth century brought a mass of books and magazines for mothers providing great quantities of advice of one sort or another. These were written by physicians, society women who were also mothers and feminist authors, each writing from their own perspective. There had been a column called "Children's Problems" from the first issue of the magazine. The children about whom "Ursula Wise" received letters were entirely middle class and had mothers worried about their behaviour or development; these could hardly be regarded as representative of the general population.
