Childhood and War in Eighteenth-Century Britain

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Jennine Hurl-Eamon (Professor of History, Professor of History, Trent University)

Childhood and War in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Jennine Hurl-Eamon (Professor of History, Professor of History, Trent University)

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English

Oxford University Press
30 January 2025

British & Irish history; Social & cultural history; French Revolution

The eighteenth century saw more years of war than of peace. Though victimhood might jump most readily to mind when thinking about how this affected young people, it is only a small part of the picture. The Seven Years' War and the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars influenced how children played, learned, worked, and perceived the world around them, regardless of whether they were in the heart of the battle or far from the action.

Childhood and War in Eighteenth-Century Britain considers how British and foreign youngsters affected the waging of war, not only as stalwart camp followers, boy soldiers, patriotic civilians, and bereaved victims, but also as evocative images of innocence, inability, and dependence. Drawing on a wide variety of source material and reading it against the grain, the book uses both children's lived experience of war and their representation in wartime imagery to reassess neglected aspects of the social and cultural histories of the long eighteenth century. This includes the profound impact of military culture on eighteenth-century childhood, but also the surprising ways in which childhood itself was mobilized for military ends. The same sentiments that set childhood apart as a distinct stage of innocence were used to marginalize youngsters' war contributions, or leveraged by the state to further military goals, and where children's historians have concentrated on the way in which war made children grow up 'before their time', the other side of this picture, far less frequently voiced, is that war might be seen to infantilize adults. The result is a comprehensive and wide-ranging account of childhood and war across the eighteenth century that makes novel contributions to and connects two distinct historiographical sub-fields: the history of childhood and military history.

By: Jennine Hurl-Eamon (Professor of History Professor of History Trent University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 165mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 598g
ISBN: 9780198917205
ISBN 10: 0198917201
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 30 January 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures Abbreviations Introduction 1: OBJECTS OF WAR: Children as Icons of Dependence and Hope 2: EXPERIENCING WAR FROM AFAR: Military Influences on Children's Play and Education 3: AMIDST WAR'S ALARMS: The Children of the Regiment Who Followed the Drum 4: SMALL AMBASSADORS: Children's Role in Cultural and Regimental Interactions 5: CHILDREN IN UNIFORM: Boy Soldiers and Officers 6: WAR'S INFANTILIZING EFFECT: Childhood as Metaphor in the British Army Conclusion Bibliography Index

Jennine Hurl-Eamon is Professor of History and Department Chair at Trent University in Canada. This is her fourth book. She has also authored more than twenty scholarly articles and edited three volumes of primary source collections in the series Women, Families, and the British Army, 1700-1880. Her research is funded by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.