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The Invention of ChildhoodEpisodes

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  1. Reinventing Childhood

    30/30Recalling the impact of adults on childhood down the centuries up to the present day.

  2. Calling a Hit a Smack

    29/30How children have fallen between the family and the state, sometimes with tragic results.

  3. The Disappearance of Childhood

    28/30Examining how the media and marketing have encroached on the lives of children.

  4. A Prison or a Garden

    27/30The story of the fight for children's rights in the second half of the 20th century.

  5. The Kiddy and the Pork Chop

    26/30The impact on children of economic improvements in the second half of the 20th century.

  6. Charlie Chaplin Went to France to Teach Ladies How to Dance

    25/30New forms of entertainment available to children in the first half of the 20th century.

  7. They'd some Queer Ideas at the Clinic

    24/30How behaviourists and Freudians battled over techniques for bringing up children.

  8. Cutting the Slum Mind off at the Root

    23/30Michael Morpurgo traces the making of Britain's Welfare State amid concerns for children.

  9. The Nation's Most Important Asset

    22/30Readings of the words of children about the effect of the wars of the 20th century.

  10. What Is the Meaning of Empire Day?

    21/30The experiences of children exiled from or who arrived in Britain under the British Empire

  11. The Habit of Schooling

    20/30How the 1870 Forster Education Act marked the start of compulsory education for all.

  12. I Ain't a Child

    19/30Victorian street children and the organisations that grew up to rescue them.

  13. Father, Is It Time?

    18/30Michael Morpurgo reveals children's working lives during the Industrial Revolution.

  14. Reinstated Divinity

    17/30How the Victorian obsession with childhood was represented in art and literature.

  15. How I Wish I Were a Boy

    16/30How boys went to 19th-century public schools as a shield from too much female influence.

  16. The Child Is Father of the Man

    15/30Evangelicals to rationalists battle over Britain's children in the 18th century.

  17. Babies, Dressed or Undressed, Jointed, Wax or Common

    14/30The rise of the British toy shop in the 18th century and the beginnings of pester power.

  18. 'Dear Papa, Dear Mama'

    13/30The more informal upbringings of middle and upper-class children in the late 18th century.

  19. Like an Angelic Choir

    11/30Despite the acclaim for Britain's first foundling hospital, some children were neglected.

  20. Overburdened with Children

    10/30The Poor Law, a forerunner of the welfare state and a safety net for many poor children.

  21. But Can She Spin?

    9/30How girls' education regressed in the 16th century, with sinful Eve the female archetype.

  22. The Vast Usefulness of Reading

    8/30Michael Morpurgo explores education's expansion for boys in the 17th century.

  23. It Was a Precious Child

    7/30Exploring how the Puritan ethos affected children and the way of family life.

  24. Learn to Die

    6/30Michael Morpurgo examines Puritanism and the effects of the Reformation.

  25. A Thousand Histories and Fables

    5/30The impact of printing and how it raised fears among adults that it corrupted children.

  26. Mischief and Misrule

    4/30Were medieval children permitted to play? Early football and festivals of misrule.

  27. New Shoes with Red Thongs

    3/30Michael Morpurgo unearths what medieval children got up to when left unattended.

  28. The Skill of the Goldsmith

    2/30Michael Morpurgo wonders if medieval people recognised a phase of 'childhood'.

  29. The Grave and the Cradle

    1/30How the arrival of Christianity and the Norman Conquest affected British children's lives.

  30. Mr Locke and Mr Rousseau

    The two 18th century philosophers, whose child-rearing ideas are influential to this day.