A History of Children: A Socio-Cultural Survey Across Millennia

Rating:
Summary: A readable historical survey
Review: Nurturing Children, Vol 1., 1999. A.R. Colón and P.A. Colón
Greenwood Press, Westport, Ct. ISBN 031331080.
A History of Children, Vol 2., 2001. A.R. Colón and P.A. Colón
Greenwood Press, Westport, Ct. ISBN 0313315744.

...two new volumes by Dr Angel Colón and his wife/researcher, Patricia, indicate the scope of their scholarly reviews. Nurturing Children is a history of paediatrics with nine chapters that analyze the role and treatment of children from archeological evidence and ancient records, to Greco-Roman and Medieval periods, to the Renaissance and Reformation, to the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. A History of Children does a social-cultural survey of the subject across millennia. Divided into two parts, the opening five chapters deal with children in prehistory and early civilizations, then in classical, late antiquity and patristic periods, and later civilizations...both works have extensive illustrations, footnotes, bibliography and appendices...
...these two astute writers examine the quality of children's lives over the centuries, giving us much to think about concerning human behavior towards offspring...in these two monumental volumes, they explore the cultural milieu of the young in ancient and modern societies, fashioned by economic circumstances, mystic obsessions, religious fervor, superstitious fears, forced migrations, or the vicissitudes of hunger, disease, aggression and war...
...in providing us with this exception historical perspective on children...the authors have written elegantly and extensively on a subject that is truly mind broadening...
Philip R. Harris, PhD.
European Business Review 2002; Vol 14: 63-64.