From Cradle to Grave: Health, Medicine and Lifecycle in Modern Britain (HI278)
Lecture 3: Child Poverty, Health and State
Historiographical perspectives
 Roger Cooter – child has rarely ‘obtained a toe hold in historical
studies’.
 Harry Hendrick – children lack political representation, childhood is
fleeting, and children’s history has been subsumed in histories of
morality and warfare.
Changing Ideas and Experiences of Childhood in the 20th Century
 19th century – children regarded as small adults. Focus on their
economic value to the family.
 20th century – ‘Century of the child’ – new ideas about childhood, legislation and increasing state
intervention.
o Children as citizens – discussion often framed in language of national efficiency and led to the
emergence of the idea children had a ‘right’ to childhood.
o Idea of childhood as ‘priceless’ time of life to be protected.
o Idea of childhood (4-14) as distinct to infancy and adolescence.
Value of Children/Childhood
 New focus on children’s value to the state as future citizens and index of the health and well-being of the
nation.
 Vvivana Zelizer – Pricing the Priceless Child (1985).
 New legislation and institutions to protect children:
o 1870 – Compulsory education in England and Wales;1889 – Prevention of cruelty to children;
1889 – Children’s act; 1907 – Education Act
The Family, Children and the State
 19th century – social provision through the poor law.
 1900-1940 – mixed economy of welfare (family and state) – National Insurance 1911.
 Post world war 2 – emphasis on state welfare – NHS 1948
 Relationships between state, local government and families was complicated.
Children, Poverty, and Sickness
 Life was tough for many children – bad living conditions, hard work, no schooling, harsh punishments, no
rights and bad health.
 Childhood diseases were common - measles, typhoid, whooping cough or scarlet fever, infected
sores, rashes, eczema, defective eye sight, rickets, running noses, decayed teeth and squints.
 Compulsory schooling made children’s bad health and poverty more visible.
Children’s medicine
 Seeing a doctor was often a last resort for the poor – quacks and medical advice books.
 Great Ormond Street (1858); The East London Hospital (1860); Evelina Hospital for Sick Children (1869)
 Paediatrics - growing focus on the mental and emotional, as well as physical, child wellbeing.
 Measurement of the ‘normal’/’healthy’ child.
K.Woods 19.9.2015