Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T19:37:54.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reflections on some recent French literature on the history of childhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Marie-France Morel  and
Richard Wall
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Review Articles
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 4 , Special Issue 2: SPECIAL ISSUE: THE CHILD IN HISTORY , August 1989 , pp. 323 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexandre-Bidon, D. and Closson, M., L'enfant à l'ombre des cathédrales (Lyon, 1985) pp. 276. Illustrated. Based in a large part on illuminated manuscripts, interesting on material culture.Google Scholar
Annales de démographie historique, numéros spéciaux, ‘Enfant et société (Paris, 1973) and ‘Mères et nourrissons’ (Paris, 1983). Essential; numerous basic articles go well beyond demographic history as conventionally defined.Google Scholar
Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations, numéro spécial, ‘Famille et société (Paris, 1972). Focused almost exclusively on the family; one article, from F. Lebrun, deals with foundlings.Google Scholar
Ariès, P., L'enfant et la vie familiale sous l'Ancien Régime, (Paris, Plon, 1960), pp. 504, illustrated. New edition, 1973; abridged edition, Le Seuil, 1975; several English editions under the title, Centuries of childhood. Fundamental.Google Scholar
Ariès, P. and Duby, G., Histoire de la vie privèe, 5 volumes, (Paris, 1985–1988) pp. 640 in each volume. Illustrated. From Ancient Rome to the present day; concentrates particularly on France; interesting for all the changes in attitudes that accompanied the discovery of childhood.Google Scholar
Badinter, E., L'amour en plus. Histoire de l'amour maternel (XVIIe–XXe siècle) (Paris, 1980) pp. 373. A best seller of no scientific value.Google Scholar
Boltanski, L., Prime éducation et morale de classe (Cahiers du Centre de Sociologie européenne, Paris–La Haye, 1969; new edition, 1978) pp. 152. Interesting sociological contribution that looks back as far as the nineteenth century.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burguière, A., Klapisch-Zuber, C., Segalen, M. and Zonabend, F., Histoire de la famille, 2 vol. (Paris, 1986) pp. 640 and 560. Illustrated. Very interesting for the comparisons it offers over time and across space.Google Scholar
Crubellier, M., L'enfance et la jeunesse dans la société française, 1800–1950 (Paris, 1979) pp. 389. A good synthesis.Google Scholar
de Parseval, G. Delaisi and Lallemand, S., L'art d'accommoder les bébés, 100 arts de recettes françaises de puériculture (Paris, 1980) pp. 282. A critical study of the often contradictory recommendations of books on child rearing between the nineteenth century and the present day.Google Scholar
Delasselle, C., ‘Les enfants abandonnés à Paris au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales E.S.C. (01–02, 1975). Fundamental.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desclais-Berkvam, D., Enfance et maternité dans la littérature française des XIIe et XIIIe siècles (Paris, 1981). Indicates the child also ‘existed’ in the high Middle Ages.Google Scholar
Donzelot, J., La police des families (Paris, 1977) pp. 221. A sociological study that views families in the past from a particular, and too simple, b perspective.Google Scholar
Dupâquier, J., ed., Histoire de la population française, 4 vols. (Paris, 1988). An excellent synthesis of the most recent findings of demographic history ranging between the earliest times and the present day.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
L'enfant au Moyen-Age, Publ. du Cuerma (Paris, 1980). Publication of the proceedings of a conference which brought together a wide variety of specialists.Google Scholar
Farge, A., Vivre dans la rue à Paris au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1979) pp. 249. Illustrated. Daily life is reconstructed on the basis of evidence derived in particular from the archives of the courts and the police.Google Scholar
Farge, A., La vie fragile. Violence, pouvoirs et solidarités à Paris au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1986). Covers the families of the Parisian masses.Google Scholar
Faÿ-Sallois, F., Les nourrices à Paris au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1980) pp. 286. Illustrated. Fundamental.Google Scholar
Flandrin, J.-L., Le sexe et l'Occident. Evolution des attitudes et des comportements (Paris, 1981) pp. 386. A collection of articles of which several are on children from ancient times to the present day.Google Scholar
Flandrin, J.-L., Families. Parenté, maison, sexualité dans l'ancienne société (Paris, Hachette, 1976; 2nd edition, Paris, Le Seuil, 1984) pp. 288. Often original and interesting.Google Scholar
Franklin, A., La vie privée d'autrefois: l'enfant (Paris, 1895) pp. 310. Incomplete new edition by A. Farge, La vie privée autrefois (Paris, 1973). Still valuable despite its age.Google Scholar
Galliano, P., ‘Le fonctionnement du bureau parisien des nourrices à la fin du XVIIIe siècle’, Actes du XCIIIe Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes, Section Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, Vol. II, 1971. Very accurate.Google Scholar
Gélis, J., Laget, M. and Morel, M.-F., Entrer dans la vie, Naissances et enfances dans la France traditionnelle (Paris, 1978) pp. 246. Illustrated. A popularized study, citing a variety of texts from the period between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.Google Scholar
Gélis, J., L'arbre et le fruit, la naissance dans l'Occident moderne, XVIe–XIXe siècles (Paris, 1984) pp. 612. Fundamental. A model contribution to anthropological history.Google Scholar
Gélis, J., La sage-femme ou le médecin, une nouvelle conception de la vie (Paris, 1988) pp. 560. Fundamental on the medicalization of childbirth.Google Scholar
Guillemard, C., La vie des enfants dans la France d'autrefois (Etrepilly, 1986) pp. 316. An uncompromising panegyric of the good old times, lacking both notes and references.Google Scholar
Hommage à Marcel Reinhard: sur la population française aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles (Paris, ‘Société de Démographie Historique’, 1973) pp. 597. Contains many important articles.Google Scholar
Knibiehler, Y. and Fouquet, C., L'histoire des mères du Moyen-Age à nos jours (Paris, 1980) pp. 367; illustrated. Good work of synthesis, illustrated with numerous texts and pictures.Google Scholar
Laget, M., Naissances. L'accouchement avant l'âge de la clinique (Paris, 1982) pp. 350. Fundamental for an understanding of births in traditional society, concentrating on the province of Languedoc.Google Scholar
Lebrun, F., La vie conjugate sous l'Ancien Régime (Paris, 1975) pp. 179. A good, brief, popular account.Google Scholar
Loux, F., Le jeune enfant et son corps dans la médecine traditionnelle (Paris, 1978) pp. 276. Essential. Applies an anthropological perspective to infant care since the nineteenth century.Google Scholar
Loux, F. and Richard, P., Sagesses du corps, la santé et la maladie dans les proverbes français (Paris, 1978) pp. 353. A collection of 4718 proverbs. Arranged by subject with quotations. One chapter is devoted to young children.Google Scholar
Loux, F. and Morel, M.-F., ‘L'enfance et les savoirs sur le corps’, Ethnologie Française (Paris, 1976). Contrasts medical writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with actual practices as recorded by French folklorists of the nineteenth century.Google Scholar
Luc, J.-N., La petite enfance à l'école, XIXe-XXe siècles, textes qfficiels présentés et annotés (Paris, 1982) pp. 391. Surveys the origins and development of nursery schools.Google Scholar
Manson, M., ‘Puer bimulus et l'image du petit enfant chez Catulle et ses prédécesseurs’, Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, XC (1978). The child as portrayed in the literature of ancient Rome.Google Scholar
Meyer, P., L'Enfant et la raison d'Etat (Paris, 1978) pp. 187. A sociological treatise, very mechanistic in nature.Google Scholar
Morel, M.-F., ‘Théories et pratiques de l'allaitement en France au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales de Démographie Historique (Paris, 1976). Based on medical texts of the Enlightenment.Google Scholar
Morel, M.-F., ‘Ville et campagne dans le discours médical sur la petite enfance au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales E.S.C. (Paris, 1977). Covers positive and negative aspects of the eighteenth-century countryside.Google Scholar
Morel, M.-F., ‘Madame Roland, sa fille et les médecins: prime éducation et médicalisation à l'époque des Lumières’, Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest (Rennes, 1979). Based on a private correspondence.Google Scholar
Néraudau, J-P., Eire enfant à Rome (Paris, 1984) pp. 411. A useful synthesis of work on a period for which few studies of children have been undertaken.Google Scholar
Pillorget, R., La tige et le rameau. Families anglaises et françaises, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1979) pp. 325. A useful comparison between France and England.Google Scholar
Sandrin, J., Enfants trouvés, enfants ouvriers, XVIIe-XIXe siècles (Paris, 1982) pp. 255. A minor synthesis, valuable in particular for the nineteenth century.Google Scholar
Segalen, M., Mari et femme dans la société paysanne (Paris, 1984) pp. 212. Details the segregation of male and female roles in the nineteenth century.Google Scholar
Shorter, E., The making of the modern family (New York, 1975); French edition, La naissance de la famille moderne (Paris, 1977) pp. 382. Includes a very suspect chapter on the ‘indifference’ exhibited by mothers in the past towards their infants.Google Scholar
Teysseire, D., La pédiatrie des Lumières, maladies et soins des enfants dans L'Encyclopédie et le Dictionnaire de Trévoux (Paris, 1982). A very limited study of two conduct books.Google Scholar
Thébaud, F., Quand nos grands-mères donnaient la vie, la maternité et France dans l'entre-deux-guerres (Lyon, 1986) pp. 315. Details the demographic, economic, social and attitudinal context to births in the 1920s and 1930s.CrossRefGoogle Scholar