Centuries of Childhood

The theme of this extraordinary book is the evolution of the modern conception of family life and the modern image  of the nature of children. Aries traces the evolution of the concept of childhood from the end of the Middle Ages, when the child was regarded as a small adult, to the present child-centered society, by means of diaries, paintings, games, and school curricula.  Ironically, he finds that individualism, far from triumphing in our time, as been held in check by the family, and that the increasing power of the tightly-knit family circle has flourished at the expense of the rich-textured communal society of earlier times. Translated from the French by Robert Baldick.

Table of Contents

I. The Idea of Childhood
1. The Ages of Life
2. The Discovery of Childhood
3. Children's Dress
4. A Modest Contribution of the History of Games and Pastimes
5. From Immodesty to Innocence
Conclusion: The Two Concepts of Childhood

II. Scholastic Life
1. Medieval Scholars Young and Old
2. A New Institution: The College
3. The Origins of the School Class
4. The Pupil's Age
5. The Progress of Discipline
6. From Day School to Boarding School
7. The 'Little Schools'
8. The Roughness of Schoolchildren
Conclusion: School and the Duration of Childhood

III. The Family
1. Pictures of the Family
2. From the Medieval Family to the Modern Family
Conclusion: The Family and Sociability

Conclusion