Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History

Author / Editor
Hanawalt, Barbara A.

Title
Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History

Published
New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Physical Description
xiii, 300 pp.

Description
Explores the biological and sociological understanding of childhood and adolescence in late-medieval London, demonstrating that the late Middle Ages "did recognize stages of life that corresponded to childhood and adolescence."
Examines archival records and some literature for evidence of the activities of youth and of adults' attitudes toward them, considering such topics as child mortality and disease, education, religious and social rituals, orphanhood, apprenticeship and court service, puberty, and passage from adolescence to adulthood. No specific discussion of Chaucer's life or works.

Chaucer Subjects
Background and General Criticism.