ABSTRACT
The Epilogue considers changes in the quarter century since the first edition of this book. It emphasises the speed of change, typified by the spread of social media, and the development of a negative narrative about childhood, succeeding over a century of a positive narrative. Surveys of educational performance highlighted the superiority of East Asian countries in educational tests, and those of well-being focused on the self-harming, obesity and mental illness that undermine children’s lives. If the walls erected to separate out childhood and adulthood have broken down, so also has confidence in the idea of the West as a model that other parts of the globe would in time follow. This has been exacerbated by immigration of children from the non-West. Historians of childhood, it is suggested, need both to challenge the narratives that have guided understanding and to become more global in their approach.
