Title: Growing up in England : the experience of childhood, 1600-1914 /
Authors: Fletcher, Anthony.
Publisher: Yale University Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Social Conditions.; History, Modern 1601-; Child Welfare; Parent-Child Relations; Child Rearing; Children England History.; Children and adults England History.; England; England Social conditions; England
Abstract: "This book presents an entirely fresh view of the upbringing of English children in upper and professional class families over three centuries. Drawing on direct testimony from contemporary diaries and letters, the book revises previous understandings of parenting and what it was like to grow up in the period between 1600 and 1914." "Using advice literature which set out developing ideologies of childhood, gender and parenting, the book explores the separate but complementary roles of mothers and fathers in raising their children. Male upbringing is discussed in terms of schooling, female through the moral and social context of a domestic schoolroom dominated by a governess. Boys were trained for the world, girls for society and marriage. Rare teenage diaries surviving from the Georgian and Victorian periods show teenagers speaking for themselves about education; relationships with parents, siblings and friends; and their social, class and gender identity."--Jacket.
Contents: Childhood -- Boyhood -- Girlhood -- Parenthood -- Care and affection -- Marital partnership -- Children who died -- Maternity -- Motherly performance -- Fatherly performance -- Fathers and educating boys -- Mothers and educating boys -- The public schools -- Boys at university -- The schoolroom -- Girls at school -- Training for society -- Personal testimony -- Home -- School -- Travel -- Friendship and love -- Identity : class, nation and gender.