ABSTRACT
An understanding of historic clothing practices can illuminate the ways in which social changes were experienced and conceptualised by individuals. This chapter examines the means by which clothing was produced, marketed and consumed by families across the social spectrum. It poses questions and offers answers that are applicable to other goods and times – perhaps even our own. The history of childhood has recently been opened up by some interesting cross- disciplinary initiatives. In the USA there is a Society for the History of Children and Youth with more than 200 international members and a Center for Childhood Studies at Rutgers University, which brings together historians with experts in childhood development and educationalists. The cultural history of childhood was developed by Linda Pollock, who identified a progressivist narrative in many histories of childhood.
