Images of Youth demonstrates the significance, long underestimated, of the male adolescent in British society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The male working-class youth was regarded as posing a serious problem--not only economically, but morally and socially as well. Investigating the causes of this, Hendrick examines the attitudes towards youth and its behavior, contemporary perceptions of "boy labour," and the "discovery" of the working-class adolescent. He goes on to consider the various attempts to solve the problem: philanthropy (the youth movement); collectivism...

This work is concerned with the history of social policy and child welfare from the 1870s to the present. It offers a full narrative of the development of social services for children, covering a range of topics including infant life protection and welfare, sexuality, child guidance, medical treatment, war-time evacuation, and child poverty. Equally importantly, the book studies the attitudes of policy-makers towards children. It reveals the way in which children have been viewed both as victims of, and threats to, the society in which they are living.

This book is intended to be a guide to the burgeoning literature on the history of childhood. Harry Hendrick reviews the most important debates and main findings of a number of historians on a range of topics including the changing social constructions of childhood, child-parent relations, social policy, schooling, leisure and the thesis that modern childhood is "disappearing." The intention of this concise study is to provide readers with a reliable account of the evolution of some of the most important developments in adult-child relations during the past one hundred years. The author draws...

Children and child welfare sit at the heart of New Labour's plans for social inclusion - but how does the government view 'children' - is it reflecting public opinion, or leading it? How does New Labour perceive 'child welfare'? What are the motivations behind, and objectives of, current social policy for children? Are the 'Rights of the Child' being subsumed under 'duties and responsibilities'? This revisionist account provides critical answers to these questions within a historical framework and from a child-centred perspective.The book not only offers a provocative account of contemporary...

In this provocative history of parenting, Harry Hendrick analyzes the social and economic reasons behind parenting trends. He shows how broader social changes, including neoliberalism, feminism, the collapse of the social-democratic ideal, and the new behaviorism, have led to the rise of the anxious and narcissistic parent. The book charts the shift from the liberal and progressive parenting styles of the 1940s through the 70s to the more behavioral, punitive, and managerial methods of childrearing today, made popular by so-called experts like Gina Ford and Supernanny Jo Frost and in the...

In this provocative history of parenting, Harry Hendrick analyzes the social and economic reasons behind parenting trends. He shows how broader social changes, including neoliberalism, feminism, the collapse of the social-democratic ideal, and the new behaviorism, have led to the rise of the anxious and narcissistic parent. The book charts the shift from the liberal and progressive parenting styles of the 1940s through the 70s to the more behavioral, punitive, and managerial methods of childrearing today, made popular by so-called experts like Gina Ford and Supernanny Jo Frost and in the...