`It is almost impossible to overpraise this book, which must stand as the classic study of the subject for a long time. ... rivetingly readable.' - Times Education Supplement

• Publisher’s note, 1. Children without childhood: an introduction, 2. Factories and mines legislation, 3. Sweatshops, cottage labour and moonlighting up to the First World War, 4. Children on the land and children at sea, 5. Young slaves—children in domestic service, 6. Brickyard and canal boat children and chimney sweeps, 7. Theatrical, circus and fairground children, 8. Juvenile street traders, 9. Waifs and beggars, 10. Vagrancy, 11. The blind-alley job problem, 12. Employers, education and the part-time system, 13. School curriculum codes and the ‘Standards’ 1862–1918, 14. Teaching methods 1860–1918, 15. Health and schooling, 16. Schooling and the upper classes, 17. Pupil society and school discipline, 18. School attendance, 19. The formative results of education, 20. Education and economic mobility, 21. Exploitation, discipline and duty in the working-class home, 22. Upbringing in the upper-class home, 23. The child protection movement, Conclusion, Notes, Bibliography, Index