Children's Work and Welfare, 1780-1880 (MACMIL/SESH)

This book examines the scale and nature of child employment between 1780 and the 1880s and the way in which attitudes towards this altered over time. By the end of the period, concern for children's welfare had led not only to legislation curbing the worst aspects of their exploitation in the workplace, but to policies to improve both their education and physical well-being, and that of the many other children who had no regular employment. The contributions of philanthropy and of the state in achieving these changes are considered, along with the continuing hardships suffered by the children of the poorest families.