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9780674404076

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One of the most fascinating features of the 17 essays, and introduction, that make up these two volumes is the predominance of that anxiety, from ancient Greece to Fifties American culture, to bring the young within the ideological embrace of the polis , or state. -- Seamus Deane The Observer

In the distant past, no less than today, childhood and adolescence comprised distinctive phases in the life cycle with their own particular characteristics and modes of behaviour. These two volumes bring together a team of 19 experts to illuminate the histories of both adult attitudes to juveniles and the experiences of young people across 3000 years of western history. The first volume ranges from discussions of youth in ancient Greece and Rome, to the perception, depiction and culture of youngsters in various medieval and early modern contexts. The second includes analyses of child labour in industrializing France, the Hitler Youth movement in Nazi Germany and the development of teenage culture in 1950s America. Between them the contributors demonstrate the huge efforts made by those in authority in all periods, be in it through Church, State or household, to control the activities of the young. Nowhere does a society reveal its most basic values, priorities and prejudices than in such efforts. (Kirkus UK)

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Giovanni Levi is Professor of Economic History at the University of Venice. Jean-Claude Schmitt is Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

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