A Cultural History of Childhood and Family in the Middle Ages [Paperback]

The Middle Ages, 800???1400 were a rich and vibrant period in the history of European culture, society, and intellectual thought. Emerging state powers, economic expansion and contraction, the growing influence of the Christian Church, and demographic change all influenced the ideals and realities of childhood and family life. Movements for Church reform brought the spiritual and moral concerns of the laity into sharper focus, profoundly shaping attitudes towards gender and sexuality and how these might be applied to family roles. At the same time, the growth of trade, the spread of literacy and learning, shifting patterns of settlement, and the process of urbanization transformed childhood.

This volume explores the ideas and practices which underpinned contemporary perceptions of childhood in the medieval West, and illuminates the enduring importance of the family as a dynamic economic, political, and social unit.

As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Childhood and Family set, this volume presents essays on family relationships, community, economy, geography and the environment, education, life cycle, the state, faith and religion, health and science, and world contexts.

Louise J. Wilkinsonis Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK and author ofWomen in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshireand co-editor ofThe Rituals and Rhetoric of Queenship: Medieval to Early Modern.

Illustrations
General Editors' Preface

Introduction
Louise J. Wilkinson, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK

1 Family Relationships
P.J.P. Goldberg, University of York, UK

2 Community
Jennifer C. Ward, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK

3 Economy
Phillipp R. Schofield, Aberystwyth University, UK

4 Geography and the Environment
Sophia Adams, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK

5 Education
Louise J. Wilkinson, Canterbury ChrlãÑ