Material Worlds of Childhood in North-western Europe c. 1350–1800

Despite much excellent work over recent decades on the history of pre-modern childhood, research still tends to focus, not on the lives and experiences of children themselves, but on the ideals and norms of child-rearing. As a consequence, children have often been represented only as passive subjects rather than agents in a co-operative process of social and physical development. In order to move beyond this limited perspective, this book focuses not on abstract ideals and values related to childhood, but on the direct experience of children in medieval and early modern Northwestern Europe, in its most tangible and immediate forms - the interaction of children with their material world. To better understand such interaction, the essays in this volume present various case studies ranging from the provision of specific food, furniture and clothing for children, to the soundscapes and artscapes that surrounded children, to the ways in which children constructed their own books, took part in rituals of death and memorialisation, believed themselves able to carry out witchcraft, and made their own living. In the course of these analyses it becomes clear that to understand children’s experiences in the pre-modern world, we need to take into account their important relationships, not just with immediate family members, but with a wide range of associates; peers, non-parental adults, and community authority figures. Focussing in this way on the material worlds of pre-modern children the collection demonstrates new and fruitful approaches to be taken in the long history of childhood.