{"product_id":"hush-little-baby-the-invention-of-infant-sleep-in-modern-france-hardback-9780228017295","title":"Hush Little Baby; The Invention of Infant Sleep in Modern France (Hardback) 9780228017295","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eHush Little Baby\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Invention of Infant Sleep in Modern France\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eGal Ventura (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780228017295\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 15 July 2023\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e352 pages, 65 illustrations, colour insert\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.714 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eHush Little Baby\u003c\/em\u003e is path-breaking in its use of material culture – baby cradles, bedding, clothing – to explore the development of ideas around infant sleep and their relationship to art. Gal Ventura reads both images and texts skilfully, with reference to theoretical modes of understanding, showing how they created many of the standards and expectations that still keep parents awake today.\" Sarah Curtis, San Francisco State University\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"[Hush Little Baby] should appeal to a broad audience, from art historians to parents who wonder when and why infant sleep became such a 'problem' and such a capitalist commodity. As Ventura tells us, approximately forty million Americans and nearly 50 percent of children 'suffer' from sleep deprivation. Her book may not offer a solution for infant insomnia, as she herself points out in the afterword, but it offers a fascinating origin story.\" \u003cem\u003eH-France\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the nineteenth century France became fixated on infant sleep. Pictures of sleeping babies proliferated in paintings, posters, and advertisements for cradles and toys. Childcare manuals and medical writings insisted on the importance of sleep as a measure of a child's future health and vigour. Infant sleep was transformed from an unremarkable event to a precarious stage of life that demanded monitoring, support, and, above all, the constant presence and attention of mothers. \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eHush Little Baby\u003c\/i\u003e uncovers the cultural, medical, and economic forces that came to shape Western ideas about infants' sleeping patterns, rituals, and settings. By the mid-nineteenth century doctors were advising that infant sleep should be carefully controlled by caregivers according to medical guidelines, and that to do otherwise would risk compromising a child's development. A sleeping baby was seen as the sign of a good mother – an idea that was reinforced through countless pictures of mothers watching vigilantly over their sleeping children, even as the reality of postpartum depression was known to doctors. The medical advice literature also helped to create a commercial infant industry, encouraging the production of clothing, bedding, cradles, and accessories designed to foster sleep, and providing new ways for families to demonstrate social status. \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eHush Little Baby\u003c\/i\u003e Gal Ventura shows how these images and ideas about babies' sleep created many of the standards and expectations that keep parents awake today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"McGill-Queen's University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52520561606936,"sku":"9780228017295","price":58.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/hush-little-baby-the-invention-of-infant-sleep-in-modern-france-hardback-9780228017295","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}