The History of Childhood (The Master Work) (Paperback)

by Lloyd deMause (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Possibly the heartless treatment of children, from the practice of infanticide and abandonment through to the neglect, the rigors of swaddling, the purposeful starving, the beatings, the solitary confinement, and so on, was and is only one aspect of the basic aggressiveness and cruelty of human nature, of the inbred disregard of the rights and feelings of others. Children, being physically unable to resist aggression, were the victims of forces over which they had no control, and they were abused in many imaginable and some almost unimaginable ways by way of expressing conscious or more commonly unconscious motives of their elders...The present volume abounds in evidence of all kinds, from all periods and peoples. The story is monotonously painful, but it is high time that it should be told and that it should be taken into account...from the foreword

Product Details

• Paperback: 462 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson (June 28, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568215517
• ISBN-13: 978-1568215518
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,142,155 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History for the Future, January 8, 2001

By	Robert A. Scharf (NY USA) - See all my reviews

This revolutionary book impacted not only childhood history but history in general, as well as psychology and the hybrid field of psychohistory. The scholarly contributions remain essential reading for those who wish to look candidly at the past and the introduction by deMause is simply epochal. His view that adult and social violence have their origins in childhood has been vindicated by the most important studies of the subject, including James Gilligan's "Violence," Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Rhodes's "Why They Kill," and Anna Motz's groundbreaking study of female violence "The Psychology of Female Violence," the latter two having drawn on the works of deMause. Accordingly, this book is important not only for understanding our past, but as an indicator of where much fruitful scholarship is going to be done in the future. This work has rightly been praised by such noted historians as William Langer, Past President of the American Historical Association, and Rudolph Binion, as well as many luminaries from the field of psychology including psychiatrist Morton Schatzman, and eminent therapists like Reuben Fine and Alice Miller, who has drawn extensively on deMause's work. I concur with the New York Review of Books that this work is "Brilliant...bold...challenging." I would also add "indispensable." I cannot recommend this work too highly.

6 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but unreliable, March 31, 2000

By A Customer

The only trouble with this very interesting and readable book is that its conclusions have long since been discredited by eminent specialists in the field.