HIST 3320: The History of Childhood

Week 8:

Tuesday, Oct. 15: No Class (Conversion Day, follows Monday Schedule)   

Thursday, Oct. 17: Midterm (In-class, Identification Questions and Short Essay/s)

Week 9: Children in Industrializing and Victorian England

Tuesday, Oct. 22:

• Stearns, CWH, Ch. 5, “Forces of Change and the Modern Model of Childhood, Developments in the West: Eighteenth century to 1914.”
• Women and Children During the Industrial Revolution in England

https://schoolshistory.org.uk/topics/british-history/industrial-revolution/women-and-children/

• The Romantic Child, 1780-1830 http://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/romantic_child.htm

Recommended: Primary Sources

• The National Archives of UK (resources on children)

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/victorian-children-in-trouble/

• Visit this page and explore resources on different time periods:

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/

Discussion Questions:

• What were the forces of global change that affected modern childhood? Did they affect children of all classes and regions uniformly? 
• Think about diverse examples from different countries and cultures to illustrate your argument.

Thursday, Oct. 24: Stearns, CWH, Ch. 6, “Alongside the Modern Model: The Pressure of Colonialism”

• The Victorian Child, c. 1837-1901 http://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/victorian.htm
• “Children who made Victorian Britain” (A 15-minute video by Oxford Professor Jane Humphreys)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87eVOpbcoVo

• Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain: Catherine Lavender. “Notes on The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood”

http://www.ghhsapush.com/uploads/8/0/6/2/80629020/cult_of_domesticity.pdf

• For comparison with the present, visit the Human Rights Watch website on Child Labor:

https://www.hrw.org/topic/childrens-rights/child-labor

            Recommended

• Childhood in Victorian Literature https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-

9780199799558/obo-9780199799558-0144.xml

• Victorian Children’s Literature and the Invention of Childhood https://eghammuseum.org/victorian-childrens-literature-and-the-invention-ofchildhood/

Discussion Questions:

• What was the new cultural definition of childhood that evolved in the Victorian era? What do we mean by the Victorian child?
• Did the new ideology of domesticity and child rearing match with real life conditions of all children?