Looking for books on the history of family/parenting/childhood

February 7, 2022 11:35 AM

I'm looking for non-fiction books that offer a historical or sociological perspective on how family, parenting, and childhood have changed over time. I'm particularly curious about the Western world but would be equally happy with a book that takes a more complete global perspective

I'm looking for recommendations that explore how shifts in society, life expectancy, labor force, etc. have impacted family structures. But, I'm having a hard time finding something that doesn't feel either exceptionally academic or kind of...glib/shilling for a particular viewpoint (e.g. WE NOW CODDLE OUR CHILDREN. OH NO!) They are not perfect examples, but I think I'm looking for something in the vein of "Home" by Witold Rybcyznski or Sapiens by Yuval Harari, but on the topic of family specifically. Does such a book exist?

posted by jeszac to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

Perhaps Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children. Publisher's description: "In this rich social history, Ann Hulbert analyzes one hundred years of shifting trends in advice and discovers an ongoing battle between two main approaches: a “child-centered” focus on warmly encouraging development versus a sterner “parent-centered” emphasis on instilling discipline. She examines how pediatrics, psychology, and neuroscience have fueled the debates but failed to offer definitive answers."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:44 AM on February 7, 2022

My friend wrote a book that touches on some of this: Baby Meets World.
posted by fruitslinger at 11:49 AM on February 7, 2022

Centuries of Childhood by Philippe Aries is pretty accessible and good starting point. Think most historical texts on childhood are on some level arguing with Aries.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 12:04 PM on February 7, 2022

Sarah Bladder Hrdy's Mother Nature is a great read and touches on these topics from a feminist pov.
posted by emjaybee at 12:26 PM on February 7, 2022

I'm interested in similar questions but my list of works on this topic falls mostly in the 'very academic' category. The last several of these will surely be too academic, but you might look into:

The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Coontz

The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age by Beatrice Gottlieb

Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages by Gies and Gies

Christianity and the Making of the Modern Family by Rosemary Radford Ruether

Family and Civilization by Carle Zimmerman

The World We Have Lost by Peter Laslett

Family Forms in Historic Europe by Richard Wall

Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism by Melinda Cooper

A Millennium of Family Change: Feudalism to Capitalism in Northwestern Europe by Wally Seccombe
posted by demonic winged headgear at 1:29 PM on February 7, 2022

There are several I would recommend - though I haven't read the two books you mention so I don't know how similar they are to those.

* Mother: An Unconventional History by Sarah Knott (reviewed in second half of link).
* Denise Riley's War in the Nursery: Theories of the Child and Mother is older (1983) but still good.
*Another older book, also 1983, Linda Pollock's Forgotten Children: Parent Child Relations from 1500 to 1900.
* Mothering and Motherhood in Ancient Greece and Rome, by Lauren Hackworth Petersen and Patricia Salzman-Mitchell.
* Helen McCarthy's Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood (primarily 19th and 20thc as far as I recall).
* Hugh Cunningham's books The Invention of Childhood and Children and Childhood in Western Society since 1500. My memory is that the first is more primary sources and the second more trad history, but I may not be remembering accurately and can't find good reviews online, though there are videos of Cunningham talking about his work if you're interested.
* Growing Up Poor: Home, School and Street in London, 1870-1914 by Anna Davin covers a fairly short period and one city, but is a really good book.

You might also like Tanya Evans's work, although her individual books don't cover long periods. 'Unfortunate Objects': Lone Mothers in Eighteenth-Century London and, with Pat Thane, Sinners? Scroungers? Saints? Unmarried Motherhood in Twentieth-Century England.

There's also Australian Mothering: Historical and Sociological Perspectives edited by Carla Pascoe Leahy and Petra Bueskens, though as the title indicates it's sociology as well as history. I can't find a review online but this lists the chapters.

I thought the Journal of Women's History had done a special issue on motherhood, but I can't immediately find it if so. It has had a lot of articles about motherhood though.
posted by paduasoy at 1:33 PM on February 7, 2022

This is one of my favourite comments on Metafilter. The commenter, Catseye, did research on 18th century European parenting and recommends several good texts. (In that same thread, several people mention Aries’ misconceptions about historical parenting, so I’d take Aries with a grain of salt.)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:37 PM on February 7, 2022

Family and Kinship in East London (1957) Willmott and Young. The past is a foreign country, indeed.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:49 PM on February 7, 2022

@Ancientchildren on twitter posts a lot about the archaeological evidence of children and parents from ancient times.
posted by slightlybewildered at 3:59 PM on February 7, 2022

Slightly afield, but you might like A Good Time to Be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future.
posted by jocelmeow at 4:05 PM on February 7, 2022