The Infancy of the History of Childhood: An Appraisal of Philippe Aries

Few works have exerted a greater influence upon British and American social historians than Philippe Aries's L'Enfant et la vie familiale sous l'ancien regime. Sensitive and encompassing,2 of undisputed importance,3 erudite, imaginative, and inventive, this book has, in Lawrence Stone's words, had a dazzling success and has been for more than a decade primum mobile of the study of family history.4 Known mainly in its English translation, Centuries of Childhood, which appeared within two years of the French original, Aries's work has even received the enthusiastic attention of a feminist and the qualified praise of a leading historical demographer.5 While Aries himself has moved on to explore the themes of contraception and attitudes to death, Centuries of Childhood continues to appear at the head of undergraduate reading-lists, seemingly assured of a commanding place in the historiography of the family.