Centuries Of Childhood
  • Published: 12 July 1965
  • ISBN: 9780394702865
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $49.99

Centuries Of Childhood

Formats & editions
Paperback
23 Aug 1996
Paperback
12 Jul 1965
Buy from…
Amazon Booktopia Dymocks QBD Readings Your Bookstore Abbeys Boomerang Find local retailers Find local retailers Collins Fishpond Gleebooks Harry Hartog Kinokuniya Robinsons The Nile Mighty Ape

A hugely influential, classic study of childhood and the place of children within the family.

The theme of this extraordinary book is the evolution of the modern conception of family life and the modern image; of the nature of children. Aries traces the evolution of the concept of childhood from the end of the Middle Ages, when the child was regarded as a small adult, to the present child-centered society, by means of diaries, paintings, games, and school curricula.
 
Ironically, he finds that individualism, far from triumphing in our time, has been held in check by the family, and that the increasing power of the tightly-knit family circle has flourished at the expense of the rich-textured communal society of earlier times. Translated from the French by Robert Baldick.
  • Published: 12 July 1965
  • ISBN: 9780394702865
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $49.99
Categories:

About the author

Philippe Aries

Philippe Aries was born in Blois in 1914. He studies at the Sorbonne and later became an expert on tropical agriculture. This he found only modestly absorbing and consequently took up historical research, describing his experiences in this area, in his autobiography, Un historien du dimanche.

His first interest was in demography, the starting point for his book, Centuries of Childhood and for an earlier work Histoire des populations francaises. His later and more controversial works, focusing on the subject of death, include Western Attitudes Towards Death and The Hour of Our Death.

All Aries' books are outstanding examples of the discoveries which historians can make when they decide to concentrate on what Balzac claimed should be the province of the novel: that of writing the history of manners and of man's perception of himself. Phillipe Aries died in February 1984.

penguin pop image
penguin pop image