ABSTRACT
The short twentieth century, as E.J. Hobsbawm called the period from the First World War to the fall of the Soviet Union, became the century of school children. There were differences in timing between countries, as between the urban and rural worlds, but the developments followed a similar path. After the First World War, enrolment was firmly in progress, although far from all children of school age went to school. After the Second World War, all or almost all children of school age went to school, at least for a few years, and child labour became a marginal phenomenon, associated with family farms and particular population groups or regions. This chapter explores why the trend in child labour turned upwards towards the end of the short twentieth century. It starts from the assumption that, until this upturn, child labour in Europe could be considered 'old-type' child labour on the wane, although the decline may have been interrupted by the war.
