Histoire de 'enfrance en occident. Tome 1. De l'antiquite au XVII siecle. Tome 2. Du XVIII siecle a nos j.urs.(Review)

Edited by Egle Becchi and Dominque Julia (Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1998) 990 pp. Fr 340

As the editors of Histoire de l'enfance en occident point out in their introduction, writing a history of childhood presents particular challenges. Indeed, children have to be glimpsed through the prism of adult records and initiatives, and sources available to the historian and historical approaches to childhood vary considerably from period to period. It is therefore not surprising that Becchi and Julia have not aimed to construct a continuous or comprehensive history of childhood in the West, but have instead collected diverse, interdisciplinary essays in an effort to explore …