cultural history of childrearing
December 27, 2007 11:41 AM Subscribe
being a new mom i've read way too much about baby care. now i'm interested in the history of baby raising and care.
i'm
i just read about "baby farming" in victorian england and i'd love more like that and preferably earlier history. Would also be interested in various other cultures but i cant seem to find anything. anyone ever seen anything like this?
please forgive lowercase...baby sleeping on left arm...
i just read about "baby farming" in victorian england and i'd love more like that and preferably earlier history. Would also be interested in various other cultures but i cant seem to find anything. anyone ever seen anything like this?
please forgive lowercase...baby sleeping on left arm...
Our Babies, Ourselves is great -- also check out "Raising America," by Ann Hulbert (obviously America-centric, but still a fascinating history of the rise of the baby/child care "expert").
posted by mothershock at 12:41 PM on December 27, 2007
posted by mothershock at 12:41 PM on December 27, 2007
Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life
A History of Childhood: Children and Childhood in the West from Medieval to Modern Times
(and not strictly about baby raising and care, but there are some chapters devoted to the feeding of children - the chapter on what children of the urban working class were fed in 19th C England is particularly horrifying - The Englishman's Food: A History of Five Centuries of English Diet)
posted by needled at 1:07 PM on December 27, 2007
A History of Childhood: Children and Childhood in the West from Medieval to Modern Times
(and not strictly about baby raising and care, but there are some chapters devoted to the feeding of children - the chapter on what children of the urban working class were fed in 19th C England is particularly horrifying - The Englishman's Food: A History of Five Centuries of English Diet)
posted by needled at 1:07 PM on December 27, 2007
For a laff, James Lileks: Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 1:09 PM on December 27, 2007
posted by Sweetie Darling at 1:09 PM on December 27, 2007
Best answer: Try "history of childhood" as a search term. That led me to this page, which looks good. I've read Phillipe Aries's Centuries of Childhood, which is seminal, though I understand some of his conclusions are now disputed. Colin Heywood's History of Childhood may be more up to date, though I haven't read it yet. I may have some more references when I am at work tomorrow.
If you're interested in fiction describing different ways of childreading, Jean Webster's Dear Enemy is fascinating - it's the sequel to "Daddy-Long-Legs" and describes a friend of the girl in DLL becoming the superintendent of the orphanage and making it over according to the latest views on child care - "cottage homes," for instance. There's also Jenny Uglow's biography of Hogarth which has a lot of stuff about his involvement in the Thomas Coram orphanage - surprisingly modern approaches in some ways.
posted by paduasoy at 1:16 PM on December 27, 2007
If you're interested in fiction describing different ways of childreading, Jean Webster's Dear Enemy is fascinating - it's the sequel to "Daddy-Long-Legs" and describes a friend of the girl in DLL becoming the superintendent of the orphanage and making it over according to the latest views on child care - "cottage homes," for instance. There's also Jenny Uglow's biography of Hogarth which has a lot of stuff about his involvement in the Thomas Coram orphanage - surprisingly modern approaches in some ways.
posted by paduasoy at 1:16 PM on December 27, 2007
Best answer: Absolutely fantastic book - changed my life completely -
Mother Nature, by Sarah Hrdy.
I can't recommend this book enough - it should be required reading for every human on the planet.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:27 PM on December 27, 2007
Mother Nature, by Sarah Hrdy.
I can't recommend this book enough - it should be required reading for every human on the planet.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:27 PM on December 27, 2007
Got it! Ann Dally, "Inventing Motherhood" - another classic. Searching for "invention of motherhood" also gives some interesting references
posted by paduasoy at 8:19 AM on December 28, 2007
posted by paduasoy at 8:19 AM on December 28, 2007
And this one I know nothing about, just got an email alert from which this is a quote.
Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe, Elisheva Baumgarten.
To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7735.html
This book presents a synthetic history of the family--the most basic building block of medieval Jewish communities--in Germany and northern France during the High Middle Ages. Concentrating on the special roles of mothers and children, it also advances recent efforts to write a comparative Jewish-Christian social history.
"Baumgarten's writing of Ashkenaz medieval history as seen through a gender perspective advances a more inclusive reading of Jewish history."--Jewish Book World.
posted by paduasoy at 1:08 PM on December 30, 2007
Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe, Elisheva Baumgarten.
To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7735.html
This book presents a synthetic history of the family--the most basic building block of medieval Jewish communities--in Germany and northern France during the High Middle Ages. Concentrating on the special roles of mothers and children, it also advances recent efforts to write a comparative Jewish-Christian social history.
"Baumgarten's writing of Ashkenaz medieval history as seen through a gender perspective advances a more inclusive reading of Jewish history."--Jewish Book World.
posted by paduasoy at 1:08 PM on December 30, 2007
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Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America
History of American Childhood Series -- Age of the Child
The Protestant Temperament: Patterns of Child-Rearing, Religious Experience, and the Self in Early America
posted by Aanidaani at 11:57 AM on December 27, 2007