Table of Contents

1 Starting points
2 Children in social thought between the wars
3 Earners or learners? Work and school 1900-1939
4 Children in wartime
5 Younger children’s work: Doing their bit
6 Bringing in the harvest
7 Older children’s work: Serving their country
8 Children in organisations: Working for freedom
9 Closing points

Promotional Information

Think of children and the Second World War, and evacuation comes immediately to mind. Berry Mayall and Virginia Morrow have a different story to tell, one in which all the children of the nation were encouraged to contribute to the war effort. -- Hugh Cunningham, Professor Emeritus University of Kent Another major contribution to the sociology of childhood by two pioneers in the field. -- Sarane Spence Boocock, Emeritus Professor of Sociology Rutgers University In raising questions about the nature of children/childhood, this is a timely, relevant, and accessibly written book, and is an ideal text for students in education, history, and sociology. -- Harry Hendrick, Visiting Associate Professor University of Southern Denmark I will certainly add it to my student reading list. -- Dr Martin Parsons, Director of the Research Centre for Evacuee and War Child Studies University of Reading ...Berry Mayall and Virginia Morrow have given us an astute, exhaustively researched book that establishes the 'starting line' for work on post-war childhood in Western societies. -- Professor Stephen Lassonde, author of Learning to Forget: Schooling and family life in working-class New Haven, 1870-1940 (Yale, 2005), and Deputy Dean of College Brown University Their discussion has resonance beyond the specific example of England during a certain time in history. The links drawn between work and schooling in the war have relevance for contemporary policy debates on the nexus between schooling and child work/labour, in both Western and Eastern countries and on issues of children as participants and citizens, able to make valuable contributions to their communities. -- Jan Mason, Emeritus Professor, Social Justice and Social Change Research Group University of Western Sydney, Australia

About the Author

Berry Mayall is Professor of Childhood Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London. She has worked for many years on research projects studying the daily lives of children and their parents. Virginia Morrow was Reader in Childhood Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London until 2010. She is currently Senior Research Officer in the Department of International Development, University of Oxford.

Reviews

... a fascinating account, putting it into a sociological, historical and political context.
*British Educational Research Journal, 2012*

...extends our understanding about children in wartime by showing what was expected of them - and, for most, childhood was over by 14 - when Britain was at war.
*BBC History Magazine, 12:9*

'... succeeds in enriching both the view of childhood and the life of the child during the Second World War... inspiring the reader to further critical scrutiny of present-day notions of childhood.'
*Childhood*