Childhood in Nineteenth-Century France
Work, Health and Education among the 'Classes Populaires'

The central theme of this book is the changing experience of childhood in nineteenth-century France.

Colin Heywood (Author)

9780521892773, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 May 2002

364 pages
22.8 x 15.4 x 2.2 cm, 0.596 kg

'This is a very good manuscript, well researched, cautious, judicious, eschewing partisan or emotional sweeping statements and above all very well, indeed elegantly, written and constructed. It is, as The New York Review of Books would say, a good read, holding the reader from beginning to end and arriving at some important conclusions.' Olwen Hufton, Harvard University

The central theme of this book is the changing experience of childhood among the peasants and working classes of nineteenth-century France. Manual work and informal methods of education in the local community became less prominent at this stage of life, whilst the primary school loomed increasingly large. The first section of the book considers childhood in rural society; the second examines the impact of industrial development on the lives of working-class children; and the third traces the child labour legislation of 1841 and 1874. The purposes of the work are to understand why the practice of child labour, considered entirely acceptable in the early nineteenth century, became an issue for reform from the 1830s, and also to assess the strategies adopted by the French State for curbing abuses. Its significance lies in its original synthesis of material on child labour, apprenticeship and education, drawing on a broad range of primary sources as well as the existing literature in related fields of study.

List of maps
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. The Rural Background: 1. The agricultural setting
2. The nature of work for children in agrarian society
3. Education in rural society
Part II. The Impact of Industrialization: 4. Child labour in the industrial setting
5. Working conditions for children in industry
6. A physical decline in the race?
7. A moral and intellectual decline?
Part III. The State Intervenes: 8. 1841: an experiment in social legislation
9. The experiment in practice, 1841–70
10. 1874: child labour legislation comes of age
11. The curbing of child labour in industry, 1874–92
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]