Preface 1 Introduction: childhood in world history 2 Childhood in agricultural societies: the first big changes 3 Childhood in the classical civilizations 4 Childhood in postclassical world history: the impact of religious change 5 Contacts and Contrasts in the Postclassical World 6 Forces of change and the modern model of childhood: developments in the west, eighteenth century to 1914 7 Alongside the modern model: the pressures of colonialism 8 Modern childhood in Asia: Japan adapts the new model 9 Childhood and communist revolutions 10 Childhood in the affluent societies, twentieth and twenty-first centuries 11 The dislocations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: children face war and violence 12 Globalization and childhoods 13 The Dilemma of Children’s Happiness 14 Conclusion: childhoods from past toward future
Peter N. Stearns is Provost and Professor of History at George Mason University. He is co-author of Premodern Travel in World History (2008), and author of Globalization in World History (2009), Sexuality in World History (2009), Gender in World History (2nd edition 2006), Consumerism in World History (2nd edition 2006), and Western Civilization in World History (2003), all in this series. His other recent publications include The Global Experience (2005) and World History in Brief (2007).
'Reviewers praised the first edition of this book as a "primer in
the field," and the same could be said of this updated edition,
published five years later. Expanding his book to include more
material on different parts of the world (Africa and South Asia,
for example), Stearns (George Mason Univ.) has compressed an
encyclopedic perspective on global childhood into a concise,
readable 14 chapters. The book is organized more or less
chronologically, moving from agricultural and classical
civilizations through "modern" childhood, the colonial era, and the
20th century. Thus, the organization is traditional (and somewhat
uninspired), as are the topics covered, though Stearns also takes
an occasional foray into thematic topics, including a fascinating
chapter on the history of children's happiness. The inclusion of a
thorough selection of further readings enriches the book's value.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduate and general
collections.' -- K. Dubinsky, Queen's University, CHOICE 'Stearns
updates his earlier study of the global history of childhood with…a
lucid analysis of new research and synthesis of previous secondary
works in the field…Scholars researching the history of play and
childhood will find Stearns’ work an interesting survey of how
attitudes towards children and child rearing have evolved over time
and very valuable to those who study the nature of play.' —Ellen M.
Tsagaris, Rock Island, IL
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
