I am very excited to share Jane Eva Baxter and Meredith Ellis’ new edited volume. Opening the book the editors state:
The 19th Century was a time when the world was becoming increasingly connected through global forces and networks. Colonial and capitalist expansion was bringing the world into closer contact, while nationalism and forms of indigenous resistance were shaping and moulding the world on more local and regional scales. This dynamic environment was the backdrop for a time when childhood was becoming significantly elaborated as a cultural category of identity. Institutions, objects, and places specifically designed for children were multiplying at an unprecedented rate, writing about children in fiction and non-fiction became increasingly prolific, and the concern for children’s health and well-being in life and death was of paramount concern in many communities.
This work is unique because it focuses on children and childhood in multiple places in the 19th century- most are either about the United States, the UK or Australia exclusively. The broad geographic approach to this volume allows for the reader to engage very specific case studies but also experience the emergence of widespread themes that develop as part of the changes taking place globally during the 19th century.
Part one of volume
11 of Childhood in the Past is an overflow volume of excellent papers on 19th century education that could not fit in the volume because they received far too many excellent proposals on that topic.
The new volume of Childhood on the Past also includes a
review of this book.
Happy Reading!