"Freshly updated with new material, there is no better introduction to childhood in a world context. The breadth of Peter Stearns's knowledge of world history and his analytic acuity makes this an essential text for students of childhood history and for all historians who are learning to appreciate the significance of this subject to an understanding of the human past and the evolving present."
Paula S. Fass, author of the End of American Childhood: From Life on the Frontier to the Managed Child
"This sweeping, eye-opening history demonstrates that the contemporary Western ideal of childhood – as an innocent period devoted to play, schooling, and pleasure, and sharply segregated from the adult world — is a historical anomaly. By placing contemporary childhood into a fresh global-historical perspective, this book not only provides a succinct overview of how human societies have evolved over millennia, it challenges the widespread assumption that childhood today is unequivocally better than in the past. Despite obvious improvements in health and living standards, too many contemporary children are exposed to violence, abuse, poverty, and displacement, while the most affluent lead over-organized, overly coddled lives with distressingly few opportunities for unstructured, outdoor play free from adult supervision."
Steven Mintz, author of Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood
"Characteristically learned, conceptually sleek, and sensitive to societal and temporal variation, Stearns is intensely dubious about the relative value of contemporary gains in children's material and physical well-being. The preeminent surveyor of uncharted historical landscapes importantly updates the literature of the ensuing decade, in this 3rd edition of his sweeping Childhood in World History."
Stephen Lassonde, author of Learning to Forget: Schooling and Family Life in New Haven’s Working Class, 1870-1940
"The publication of the 3rd edition of "Children in World History" is a welcome event. As a guide to our changing conceptions of childhood across historical, cultural and religious contexts this book has few rivals. Although written in an accessible and fluid style, it highlights the complexities and contradictions in the childhood narrative. The focus not just on Western but on other regional perspectives including Africa, India, Japan, China and Latin America is one of the major strengths of the volume. Stearns’s book will be of interest not only to historians and their students but all scholars of childhood including social scientists. A real achievement."
Ross D. Parke, author of Future Families: Diverse Forms, Rich Possibilities
