Growing Up in France

How did French people write about their own childhood and youth between the 1760s and the 1930s? Colin Heywood argues that this was a critical period in the history of young people, as successive generations moved from the relatively stable and hierarchical society of the Ancien Régime to a more fluid one produced by the industrial and democratic revolutions of the period. The main sources he uses are first-hand accounts of growing up: letters, diaries, childhood reminiscences and autobiographies. The book's first section considers cultural constructions of childhood and adolescence, and representations of growing up. The second considers the process of growing up among family and friends, the third the experience of moving out into the wider world, via education, work, political activity and marriage. This unique account will appeal to historians of childhood and adolescence, as well as social and cultural historians.

Introduction; Part I. Representations of Childhood and Adolescence in France: 1. 'Ego documents' and the French historian in the twenty-first century; 2. Into the limelight: new conceptions of childhood and adolescence; 3. Growing up in theory and in practice; 4. Turning points in a life: the autobiographical model; Part II. Growing Up Among Family and Friends: 5. The demographic context: family forms in modern France; 6. Of mothers and motherhood; 7. Of fathers, fatherhood, kin and discipline; 8. 'Small memories' from childhood; 9. The society of children and youth; Part III. Moving Towards Adulthood: 10. School, apprenticeship and work; 11. A 'long' childhood in the secondary schools; 12. Into 'adult' territory: sex, politics and religion; Conclusion; Bibliography.