Childhood

<p>In this book Chris Jenks looks at what the ways in which we construct our image of childhood can tell us about ourselves. After a general discussion of the social construction of childhood the book is structured around three examples of the way the image of the child is played out in society:</p><ul> <li>the history of childhood from medieval times through the enlightenment 'discovery' of childhood to the present</li> <li>the mythology and reality of child abuse and society's response to it</li> <li>the 'death' of childhood in cases such as the James Bulger murder in which the child itself becomes the perpetrator of evil.</li> </ul><p>Part of the highly successful <em>Key Ideas</em> series this book gives students a concise provocative insight into some of the controlling concepts of our culture.</p>