The History of Childhood

The History of Childhood

The History of Childhood is a history podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 5 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts The History of Childhood, a history show with 5 episodes published.

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  The History of Childhood

  10 – Thinkers of the Century – Volume 1, 16th Century

  Oct 1, 20261h 34m

  We step into the minds of 20 thinkers from the 16th century to explore their ideas about children and childhood. Topics covered: Ambroise Paré, monsters and prodigies, and the theory of maternal imagination; Wáng Yángmíng and life-intention (shēngyì); Lǐ Zhì and the child-mind (tóngxīn); Yulgok (Yi I), establishing the will (ipji), and sagehood; Thomas More and children’s toys; Erasmus, educability, humanist pedagogy, and civility; Juan Luis Vives and the education of girls and poor children; François Rabelais, childhood insight, detrimental education, and games for children; Roger Ascham, individual differences in learning, Lady Jane Grey, and pedagogical sensitivity; Jean Bodin, child testimony in witch trials, paternal authority, and political sovereignty; Michel de Montaigne and education for living; Surdas, Braj poetry, the child Krishna, Pushtimarg, devotional service (seva), and divine play (lila); Martin Luther, grace and infant faith (fides infantium), religious education, and the boy at Dessau; Balthasar Hubmaier, believers’ baptism, infant dedication, and free will; John Calvin, original sin, and predestination; Teresa of Ávila, childhood autobiography, and childhood spirituality; Francisco de Vitoria, children’s rights, and legal personhood; Juan Huarte de San Juan, intellectual aptitude (ingenio), and social vocation; Girolamo Cardano and deaf education; Paracelsus and intellectual disability. 0:00 Ambroise Paré 06:07 Wáng Yángmíng 11:39 Lǐ Zhì 16:45 Yulgok (Yi I) 20:28 Thomas More 23:10 Erasmus 27:22 Juan Luis Vives 31:15 François Rabelais 37:38 Roger Ascham 40:34 Jean Bodin 43:52 Michel de Montaigne 48:50 Surdas 57:39 Martin Luther 1:05:20 Balthasar Hubmaier 1:08:40 John Calvin 1:10:45 Teresa of Ávila 1:14:40 Francisco de Vitoria 1:18:58 Juan Huarte de San Juan 1:23:30 Girolamo Cardano 1:26:28 Paracelsus Selected primary sources: Paré: Monsters and Marvels (excerpts) https://www.birthingtales.org/text.php?id=17 Wáng Yángmíng: Elementary Education (Chinese) https://www.shidianguji.com/book/SDZJ0013/chapter/1jmneqr8z9dly Lǐ Zhì: Childlike Mind (Chinese) https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/焚書/卷3#童心說 Yulgok: Breaking Folly’s Hold https://dh.aks.ac.kr/Edu/wiki/index.php/Key_to_Breaking_Folly%27s_Hold_%E6%93%8A%E8%92%99%E8%A6%81%E8%A8%A3 More: Utopia https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2130 Erasmus: Education of Children https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28338 ; Good Manners https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A00344.0001.001 Vives: Christian Woman https://brittlebooks.library.illinois.edu/brittlebooks_open/books2009-06/watfor0001vivand/watfor0001vivand.pdf ; Relief of the Poor https://archive.org/details/concerningrelief00vive Rabelais: Gargantua https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8166 Ascham: The Scholemaster https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1844 Bodin: Commonwealth I https://constitution.org/2-Authors/bodin/bodin_1.htm ; Demon-Mania (French) https://archive.org/details/delademonomanied00bodi Montaigne: Essays I.26 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3585 Surdas: Sur’s Ocean; Memory of Love (selected poems) https://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/suradasa-2009-memory-of-love.html Luther: Babylonian Captivity https://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/first_prin/first_prin.v.iii.iii.html ; Table Talk (Dessau) https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/gerchange.html#dessau Hubmaier: Christian Baptism of Believers; Oecolampadius letter (infant dedication) https://books.google.com/books?id=WYnZAAAAMAAJ Calvin: Institutes II.1; IV.16 https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.all.html Teresa: Life I https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8120 Vitoria: On the American Indians https://constitution.org/2-Authors/victoria/victoria_4.htm Huarte: Examination of Men’s Wits https://archive.org/details/examendeingenios1594huar Cardano: De utilitate (Latin/Spanish) https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/CFCL/article/download/97023/4564456570346#page=6 Paracelsus: Begetting of Fools https://www.jstor.org/stable/44447230

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  The History of Childhood

  09 – Chimney Sweeps – Lives in the Dark

  Aug 13, 202653 min

  Small children are forced to spend their lives in chimneys in England for more than a century. Topics covered: child chimney sweeps and climbing boys; the sweeps’ May Day; Elizabeth Montagu; the Great Fire of London, flue design, and coal heating; parish apprenticeship and the Poor Laws; child indentures; the sale, hire, and lease of children; master sweeps; chimney climbing, coercion, entrapment, injury, and suffocation; contemporary comparisons with slavery; the soot trade; Percivall Pott and chimney-sweepers’ cancer; coal tar and experimental carcinogenesis; Jonas Hanway and early reform; the Chimney Sweepers Act of 1788; the Society for Superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys; George Smart’s scandiscope; reform legislation and non-enforcement; Lord Shaftesbury; George Brewster; the Chimney Sweepers Act of 1875; lucky-sweep folklore; Mary Poppins; modern May Day festivals; historical sanitization; child labor and vocation. Selected sources and further reading: The trade and apprenticeship K. H. Strange, Climbing Boys: A Study of Sweeps’ Apprentices, 1773–1875 (Allison & Busby, 1982) Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. 2, “Chimney-Sweepers” (1861): https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60440/60440-h/60440-h.htm Alysa Levene, “Parish Apprenticeship and the Old Poor Law in London,” Economic History Review 63 (2010): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3175807/ Campaign, evidence, and reform Jonas Hanway, A Sentimental History of Chimney Sweepers (1785): https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-sentimental-history-of_hanway-jonas_1785 William Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper,” Songs of Innocence (1789): https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/347918 “Chimney Sweepers Regulation Bill,” HL Deb 15 March 1819: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1819/mar/15/chimney-sweepers-regulation-bill Society for Superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys, Twenty-First Report (1837): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67132 “Chimney Sweepers—Question,” HC Deb 29 April 1864: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1864/apr/29/chimney-sweepers-question The Chimney Sweepers Act 1875: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/38-39/70/enacted Medicine Percivall Pott, Chirurgical Observations (1775): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pvdd4yrv H. A. Waldron, “A Brief History of Scrotal Cancer,” British Journal of Industrial Medicine 40 (1983): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1009212/ Joseph Lipsick, “A History of Cancer Research: Carcinogens and Mutagens,” Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine 11 (2021): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7919401/ May Day and the cultural afterlife Joseph Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801): https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48983/48983-h/48983-h.htm George L. Phillips, “Mrs. Montagu and the Climbing-Boys,” Review of English Studies 25 (1949) Mary Poppins, directed by Robert Stevenson (Walt Disney Productions, 1964), including “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “Step in Time,” music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman: https://movies.disney.com/mary-poppins

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  The History of Childhood

  08 – The Nutcracker – Children and Ballet

  Aug 8, 202650 min

  A German Romantic fairy tale becomes a Russian imperial ballet with children at its center. Topics covered: The Nutcracker; E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”; German Romanticism; The Sandman, automata, and the uncanny; Alexandre Dumas’s adaptation; Erzgebirge nutcrackers; Ore Mountains mining and toy making; Seiffen and Reifendrehen; children’s work in Erzgebirge toy production; Walter Benjamin on toys; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s childhood; Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album; the composition of the Nutcracker score; the Miniature Overture, the celesta, and the Grand Pas de Deux; Marius Petipa; Lev Ivanov; the Cecchetti method; the Imperial Theatre School; child dancers in the Imperial Ballet; Tamara Karsavina; Mathilde Kschessinska; Stanislava Belinskaya; classical ballet training; turnout and pointe work; Louis XIV and the origins of classical ballet; the child protagonist; children as performers and spectators; the 1892 premiere and reception; adult casting of child roles; Alexander Gorsky and Vasily Vainonen; George Balanchine’s 1954 production; The Nutcracker in American ballet. Selected sources and further reading: Original stories and toys E. T. A. Hoffmann, Nutcracker and Mouse-King (1816; English translation, 1853): https://archive.org/details/nutcrackermousek00hoff Alexandre Dumas, Histoire d’un casse-noisette (1844/45): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10842759j Walter Benjamin, “Old Toys” and “The Cultural History of Toys,” in Selected Writings, Volume 2, Part 1: 1927–1930(Harvard University Press, 1999): https://hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674015883 Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, “The German Toymakers of the Erzgebirge”: https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/german-toymakers-erzgebirge Tchaikovsky and the imperial ballet Roland John Wiley, Tchaikovsky’s Ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker (Oxford University Press, 1985): https://global.oup.com/academic/product/tchaikovskys-ballets-9780198162490 Tchaikovsky Research, “The Nutcracker”: https://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/The_Nutcracker Roland John Wiley, The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov: Choreographer of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake (Oxford University Press, 1997): https://academic.oup.com/book/49304 Children, dancers, and training Tamara Karsavina, Theatre Street: The Reminiscences of Tamara Karsavina (1930): https://archive.org/details/theatrestreetthe010053mbp Mathilde Kschessinska, Dancing in Petersburg (1960): https://archive.org/details/dancinginpetersb00kshe Weiss, Rist, and Grossman, “When Can I Start Pointe Work? Guidelines for Initiating Pointe Training,” Journal of Dance Medicine & Science 13 (2009): https://iadms.org/media/2842/iadms-resource-paper-guidelines-for-initiating-pointe-training.pdf Production history and preservation Harvard Theatre Collection, Nikolai Sergeev Dance Notations and Music Scores for Ballets, 1888–1944: https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou01987 George Balanchine Foundation, “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker”: https://balanchine.com/Ballet/george-balanchines-the-nutcracker Jennifer Fisher, Nutcracker Nation: How an Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition in the New World (Yale University Press, 2003): https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300105995/nutcracker-nation

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  The History of Childhood

  07 – AMBER Alerts and Child Abuse – Harm and Alarm

  Aug 3, 202657 min

  We explore the history of child protection and endangerment in the United States. Topics covered: the making of the AMBER Alert system; Amber Hagerman; CONELRAD and Cold War emergency broadcasting; child abduction; family abduction; child abuse and neglect; child protective services; the Adverse Childhood Experiences study; Mary Ellen Wilson, Etta Wheeler, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the founding of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; John Caffey, C. Henry Kempe, and the battered-child syndrome; mandatory reporting; missing-child statistics; the bogeyman; Plato's Phaedo and the mormolukeia; John Locke on education and child subjection; Goya's Que viene el Coco ; Struwwelpeter ; Etan Patz, Adam Walsh, and milk-carton missing children; 1980s stranger danger; moral panic; crime-control theater; child-abuse hotlines; family privacy; parental authority; children's autonomy. Selected sources and further reading: AMBER Alerts and missing children NCMEC, 2025 AMBER Alert Report: https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2025_Annual_AMBER_Alert_Report.pdf Griffin, Williams & Kadleck, "AMBER Alert Effectiveness Reexamined," Criminal Justice Policy Review 33 (2022): https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034211026366 Sedlak et al., National Estimates of Missing Children (OJJDP, 2002): https://ojp.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/196465.pdf Hammer, Finkelhor & Sedlak, Runaway/Thrownaway Children (OJJDP, 2002): https://ojp.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/196469.pdf Wolak, Finkelhor & Sedlak, Child Victims of Stereotypical Kidnappings Known to Law Enforcement in 2011 (OJJDP, 2016): https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh176/files/pubs/249249.pdf Amber: The Girl Behind the Alert (Peacock, 2023) Child maltreatment HHS, Child Maltreatment 2024: https://acf.gov/cb/report/child-maltreatment-2024 Kim et al., "Lifetime Prevalence of Investigating Child Maltreatment," AJPH 107 (2017): https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303545 CDC, "Adverse Childhood Experiences Among High School Students," YRBS 2023: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/su/su7304a5.htm Felitti et al., ACE Study, Am J Prev Med 14 (1998): https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8 Stoltenborgh et al., "Prevalence of Child Maltreatment across the Globe," Child Abuse Review 24 (2015): https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2353 Histories and studies Caffey, "Multiple Fractures…" (1946); Kempe et al., "The Battered-Child Syndrome" (1962) Shelman & Lazoritz, The Mary Ellen Wilson Child Abuse Case (2005); Watkins, "The Mary Ellen Myth" (1990) Gordon, Heroes of Their Own Lives (1988); Pleck, Domestic Tyranny (1987) Szymanski, "Child Abuse, Policy Communities, and Frame Contestation During the Progressive Era" (2019) Pollock, Forgotten Children (1983); deMause, ed., The History of Childhood (1974) Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) Primary texts Plato, Phaedo 77d–e; Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education §138; Goya, Que viene el Coco (1799)

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  The History of Childhood

  06 – Abraham Jacobi – Politics and Pediatrics

  Aug 1, 202638 min

  A radical doctor escapes prison in Europe and brings his political passion to New York, saving countless infants' lives and helping to build American pediatrics. Topics covered: Abraham Jacobi, infant mortality, American pediatrics, urban industrialization, political exile, New York City, Lower East Side tenements, swill milk, the summer complaint, infant feeding, children in medicine, milk depots, public health reform, eugenics, political materialism.

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