ABSTRACT

Governments and philanthropists, as we have seen, had for centuries formulated and operated policies towards children. Why should the period between 1830 and 1920 be marked out for separate treatment? The answer is that for a significant number of reformers the purpose of a policy towards children was lifted clear of its old moorings: until the nineteenth century policies had been drawn up with a concern either for the child’s soul or for the future manpower needs of the state. Both of these concerns remained in place in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but they were joined by a new one, a concern to save children for the enjoyment of childhood. The ideology of childhood, the emergence of which was traced in Chapter 3, now began to influence public action.