Growing up in France : from the Ancien régime to the Third Republic / Colin Heywood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heywood, Colin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children--France--History.

Children.

Children--France--Social conditions.

Social conditions.

History.

France--Social conditions.

France.

Physical Description:

xi, 313 pages : portraits ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Summary:

How did French people write about their own childhood and youth between the 1760s and the 1930s? Colin Heywood argues that this was a critical period in the history of young people, as successive generations moved from the relatively stable and hierarchical society of the Ancien Regime to a more fluid one produced by the industrial and democratic revolutions of the period. The main sources he uses are first-hand accounts of growing up: letters, diaries, childhood reminiscences and autobiographies. The book's first section considers cultural constructions of childhood and adolescence, and representations of growing up. The second considers the process of growing up among family and friends; the third, the experience of moving out into the wider world, via education, work, political activity and marriage. This unique account will appeal to historians of childhood and adolescence, as well as social and cultural historians.

Contents:

Part I Representations of childhood and adolescence in France

1 'Ego documents' and the French historian in the twenty-first century 17

Personal diaries 18

Family correspondences 20

Autobiographies 21

2 Into the limelight: new conceptions of childhood and adolescence 36

The length of childhood and adolescence 37

The nature of childhood and adolescence 45

The significance of childhood and adolescence 67

3 Growing up in theory and in practice 70

The Ages of Man: growing up in stages 72

From the cradle to the grave: growing up according to the folklore model 76

4 Turning points in a life: the autobiographical model 89

Getting started: the first memory 91

Alone in the world 93

Seeing the light 99

Grown up? 102

Part II Growing up among family and friends

5 The demographic context: family forms in modern France 107

The historical debate 109

The findings of recent research 10

6 Of mothers and motherhood 115

The child-mother relationship 116

Exalting motherhood 119

Attachment during infancy 123

Mothers as teachers 132

Mothers and sons 136

Mothers and daughters 139

7 Of fathers, fatherhood, kin and discipline 143

Fathers and fatherhood 143

Relationships with kin 155

Discipline and control 161

8 'Small memories' from childhood 168

Living in a material world 168

Illness and death 176

Private pleasures 184

9 The society of children and youth 195

La societe enfantine 196

La jeunesse 204

Part III Moving towards adulthood

10 School, apprenticeship and work 217

Work versus school: in the countryside 218

Work versus school: in the towns 229

Conclusion: schooling the people 237

11 A 'long' childhood in the secondary schools 239

'Prisons' for children and adolescents? 241

Education for girls 246

12 Into 'adult' territory: sex, politics and religion 252

Establishing identities 253

Sex and marriage 269.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0521868696

9780521868693

OCLC:

74523287