Children in Historical and Comparative Perspective: An International Handbook and Research Guide - Tapa dura

Children in Historical and Comparative Perspective presents the work of many of the world's foremost authorities on the subject in a study that affirms the importance of the role children play in the story of civilization. The contributors represent many nations as well as a variety of disciplines, from the social sciences to history and the arts. The result is a volume that covers such topics as the quality of child rearing, how cultural differences affect childhood, and patterns of both continuity and change that characterize childhood throughout the world. After the editors' introductory overview, the book's attention turns to childhood in the premodern world. The focus then shifts to the history of children in modern world countries, with each chapter supplemented by its own bibliography. This handbook, broad in its scope, highlights the uniqueness of historical and cultural influences within nations and at the same time demonstrates how the study of childhood crosses all boundaries, thereby enhancing our understanding of the human condition.

JOSEPH M. HAWES is Professor of History at Memphis State University. He is the author of Children and Urban Society and the co-editor of American Childhood: A Research Guide and Historical Handbook (Greenwood Press, 1985) and Growing Up in America: Children in Historical Perspective with N. Ray Hiner. N. RAY HINER is Chancellors Club Teaching Professor of History at the University of Kansas. He has contributed articles to the Journal of Psychohistory and the History of Education Quarterly.