ABSTRACT
The book opens with an exploration of the relationship between childhood as a set of ideas and as lived experience. The sources, for example advice written for parents or the policies of governments or voluntary organisations, make it easier to analyse the first of these, but it is nevertheless possible to see how the experience of childhood was affected by them. There is then an extended section on the historiography relating to childhood, giving most attention to Philippe Ariès’s Centuries of Childhood. The chapter argues for the continued relevance of this groundbreaking book, even though it has been heavily criticised, and that there are other valuable approaches, especially those that focus on demography and household economics.
