Familiar Violence: A History of Child Abuse

by Heather Montgomery

Child abuse casts a long shadow over the history of childhood. Across the centuries there are numerous accounts of children being beaten, neglected, sexually assaulted, or even killed by those closest to them. This book explores this darker side of childhood history, looking at what constituted cruelty towards children in the past and at the social responses towards it. Focusing primarily on England, it is a history of violence against children in their own homes, covering a large timeframe which extends from medieval times to the present. Undeniably, the experience of children in the past was often brutal, and children were treated with, what seems to contemporary mores, callousness, and cruelty. However, historians have paid far less attention to how the mistreatment of children was understood within its contemporary context. Most parents, both now and in the past, loved their children and there have always been widely shared understandings of the boundaries that separate the acceptable treatment of children from the intolerable and morally wrong. This book will examine how these boundaries have changed and been contested over time and, in doing so, provides a context to the many forms of violence experienced by children in the past.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

264 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2024

Reviews

[Guppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so hard to make it through. The history was great and the prose was easy to follow, but the content was emotionally devastating. In a long history of child abuse, it's easy to look back on the past and say "well at least we're not that barbaric", but if we spend time reflecting even a little bit, we see much of the past is still with us. The author does a great job contextualizing the past in a way that both condemns it and accepts how it would be perceived in its own time. She also highlights many ways we are still struggling with the same issues throughout the book. In particular, the debates on how Protestants view children and the original sin are the most interesting, as you can see parallels to the parenting styles we're stuck with today.

This book focused on English child abuse. As such, it is missing most of the world and I think it is missed. I would have preferred a less detailed account of a global history of child abuse. This book left me devastated every time I put it down, and I still feel like I don't know enough about the history.

Jeez Louise I'm glad I am done with that book. It was good though.

[Alba M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author reminds the reader that shifting social norms might as well have them cast as a child abuser in a possible future, which is pretty much true. One day, when the youth liberation movement will be more powerful, the relativist misopedy of the adult writing about “child abuse” will be scrutinized as itself a form of violence against children. Perhaps the very social distinction between child and adult and the ways in which it is enforced, the prison of the family and school, also will be.

[Kate Mccaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting review of the changing moral and legal definitions of childhood abuse or neglect and their incidence in Britain. Particularly notable was the class-based and paternalistic views of the 19th century reformers in particular, where neglect caused by poverty was usually blamed on the moral character of the parents, rather than the pressures of the rapid advance of capitalism, industrialisation and urbanism. However we should not feel complacently superior, given the examples included of contemporary parallels.