Childhoods Across the Generations

This article draws upon new analysis from a qualitative study of four-generation English families. It takes a historical generational perspective and explores perspectives on the childhoods of three generations of women. The article also offers a number of theoretical and methodological reflections upon the interpretation of life stories: the need to make sense of accounts in relation to life course phase; the need to examine the nature of the account being given and the time frames to which different parts of an account refer; the problems in treating accounts as reflections of historical conditions; and the difficulties in contextualizing accounts where context is assumed or ignored.