Book contents
- Childhood in Modern Europe
- New Approaches to European History
- Childhood in Modern Europe
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Childhood in Villages, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
- Part II Childhood in Towns, c. 1700–1870
- 4 Enlightenment and Romanticism
- 5 Middle- and Upper-Class Childhoods in Towns, c. 1700–1870
- 6 The ‘Lower Depths’
- 7 Work versus School during the Industrial Revolution
- Part III Childhood in an Industrial and Urban Society, c. 1870–2000
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
6 - The ‘Lower Depths’
Working-Class Children in the Early Industrial Town
from Part II - Childhood in Towns, c. 1700–1870
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2018
Book contents
- Childhood in Modern Europe
- New Approaches to European History
- Childhood in Modern Europe
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Childhood in Villages, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
- Part II Childhood in Towns, c. 1700–1870
- 4 Enlightenment and Romanticism
- 5 Middle- and Upper-Class Childhoods in Towns, c. 1700–1870
- 6 The ‘Lower Depths’
- 7 Work versus School during the Industrial Revolution
- Part III Childhood in an Industrial and Urban Society, c. 1870–2000
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 6 takes the reader to the 'lower depths': the experiences of working-class children in the challenging conditions of nineteenth-century towns. To begin with, it documents the generally high levels of infant mortality, and the conditions that explain them. Secondly, it considers the continuation of certain harmful practices for infants, in the form of infanticide, abandonment and wet-nursing. Thirdly, it assesses family life among the working classes, frequently maligned by middle-class observers unsympathetic to its difficult circumstances. Finally it looks at child welfare in the towns, noting the recent tendency among historians to re-evaluate philanthropy and emphasizing the co-operation between charities and state institutions. This section is organized under the headings of measures for the so-called deserving and undeserving poor.
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- Information
- Childhood in Modern Europe , pp. 121 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018