Alexandre-Bidon, D. and Closson, M., L'enfant à l'ombre des cathédrales (Lyon, 1985) pp. 276. Illustrated. Based in a large part on illuminated manuscripts, interesting on material culture.Google Scholar

Annales de démographie historique, numéros spéciaux, ‘Enfant et société (Paris, 1973) and ‘Mères et nourrissons’ (Paris, 1983). Essential; numerous basic articles go well beyond demographic history as conventionally defined.Google Scholar

Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations, numéro spécial, ‘Famille et société (Paris, 1972). Focused almost exclusively on the family; one article, from F. Lebrun, deals with foundlings.Google Scholar

Ariès, P., L'enfant et la vie familiale sous l'Ancien Régime, (Paris, Plon, 1960), pp. 504, illustrated. New edition, 1973; abridged edition, Le Seuil, 1975; several English editions under the title, Centuries of childhood. Fundamental.Google Scholar

Ariès, P. and Duby, G., Histoire de la vie privèe, 5 volumes, (Paris, 1985–1988) pp. 640 in each volume. Illustrated. From Ancient Rome to the present day; concentrates particularly on France; interesting for all the changes in attitudes that accompanied the discovery of childhood.Google Scholar

Badinter, E., L'amour en plus. Histoire de l'amour maternel (XVIIe–XXe siècle) (Paris, 1980) pp. 373. A best seller of no scientific value.Google Scholar

Boltanski, L., Prime éducation et morale de classe (Cahiers du Centre de Sociologie européenne, Paris–La Haye, 1969; new edition, 1978) pp. 152. Interesting sociological contribution that looks back as far as the nineteenth century.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Burguière, A., Klapisch-Zuber, C., Segalen, M. and Zonabend, F., Histoire de la famille, 2 vol. (Paris, 1986) pp. 640 and 560. Illustrated. Very interesting for the comparisons it offers over time and across space.Google Scholar

Crubellier, M., L'enfance et la jeunesse dans la société française, 1800–1950 (Paris, 1979) pp. 389. A good synthesis.Google Scholar

de Parseval, G. Delaisi and Lallemand, S., L'art d'accommoder les bébés, 100 arts de recettes françaises de puériculture (Paris, 1980) pp. 282. A critical study of the often contradictory recommendations of books on child rearing between the nineteenth century and the present day.Google Scholar

Delasselle, C., ‘Les enfants abandonnés à Paris au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales E.S.C. (01–02, 1975). Fundamental.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Desclais-Berkvam, D., Enfance et maternité dans la littérature française des XIIe et XIIIe siècles (Paris, 1981). Indicates the child also ‘existed’ in the high Middle Ages.Google Scholar

Donzelot, J., La police des families (Paris, 1977) pp. 221. A sociological study that views families in the past from a particular, and too simple, b perspective.Google Scholar

Dupâquier, J., ed., Histoire de la population française, 4 vols. (Paris, 1988). An excellent synthesis of the most recent findings of demographic history ranging between the earliest times and the present day.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

L'enfant au Moyen-Age, Publ. du Cuerma (Paris, 1980). Publication of the proceedings of a conference which brought together a wide variety of specialists.Google Scholar

Farge, A., Vivre dans la rue à Paris au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1979) pp. 249. Illustrated. Daily life is reconstructed on the basis of evidence derived in particular from the archives of the courts and the police.Google Scholar

Farge, A., La vie fragile. Violence, pouvoirs et solidarités à Paris au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1986). Covers the families of the Parisian masses.Google Scholar

Faÿ-Sallois, F., Les nourrices à Paris au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1980) pp. 286. Illustrated. Fundamental.Google Scholar

Flandrin, J.-L., Le sexe et l'Occident. Evolution des attitudes et des comportements (Paris, 1981) pp. 386. A collection of articles of which several are on children from ancient times to the present day.Google Scholar

Flandrin, J.-L., Families. Parenté, maison, sexualité dans l'ancienne société (Paris, Hachette, 1976; 2nd edition, Paris, Le Seuil, 1984) pp. 288. Often original and interesting.Google Scholar

Franklin, A., La vie privée d'autrefois: l'enfant (Paris, 1895) pp. 310. Incomplete new edition by A. Farge, La vie privée autrefois (Paris, 1973). Still valuable despite its age.Google Scholar

Galliano, P., ‘Le fonctionnement du bureau parisien des nourrices à la fin du XVIIIe siècle’, Actes du XCIIIe Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes, Section Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, Vol. II, 1971. Very accurate.Google Scholar

Gélis, J., Laget, M. and Morel, M.-F., Entrer dans la vie, Naissances et enfances dans la France traditionnelle (Paris, 1978) pp. 246. Illustrated. A popularized study, citing a variety of texts from the period between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.Google Scholar

Gélis, J., L'arbre et le fruit, la naissance dans l'Occident moderne, XVIe–XIXe siècles (Paris, 1984) pp. 612. Fundamental. A model contribution to anthropological history.Google Scholar

Gélis, J., La sage-femme ou le médecin, une nouvelle conception de la vie (Paris, 1988) pp. 560. Fundamental on the medicalization of childbirth.Google Scholar

Guillemard, C., La vie des enfants dans la France d'autrefois (Etrepilly, 1986) pp. 316. An uncompromising panegyric of the good old times, lacking both notes and references.Google Scholar

Hommage à Marcel Reinhard: sur la population française aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles (Paris, ‘Société de Démographie Historique’, 1973) pp. 597. Contains many important articles.Google Scholar

Knibiehler, Y. and Fouquet, C., L'histoire des mères du Moyen-Age à nos jours (Paris, 1980) pp. 367; illustrated. Good work of synthesis, illustrated with numerous texts and pictures.Google Scholar

Laget, M., Naissances. L'accouchement avant l'âge de la clinique (Paris, 1982) pp. 350. Fundamental for an understanding of births in traditional society, concentrating on the province of Languedoc.Google Scholar

Lebrun, F., La vie conjugate sous l'Ancien Régime (Paris, 1975) pp. 179. A good, brief, popular account.Google Scholar

Loux, F., Le jeune enfant et son corps dans la médecine traditionnelle (Paris, 1978) pp. 276. Essential. Applies an anthropological perspective to infant care since the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

Loux, F. and Richard, P., Sagesses du corps, la santé et la maladie dans les proverbes français (Paris, 1978) pp. 353. A collection of 4718 proverbs. Arranged by subject with quotations. One chapter is devoted to young children.Google Scholar

Loux, F. and Morel, M.-F., ‘L'enfance et les savoirs sur le corps’, Ethnologie Française (Paris, 1976). Contrasts medical writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with actual practices as recorded by French folklorists of the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

Luc, J.-N., La petite enfance à l'école, XIXe-XXe siècles, textes qfficiels présentés et annotés (Paris, 1982) pp. 391. Surveys the origins and development of nursery schools.Google Scholar

Manson, M., ‘Puer bimulus et l'image du petit enfant chez Catulle et ses prédécesseurs’, Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, XC (1978). The child as portrayed in the literature of ancient Rome.Google Scholar

Meyer, P., L'Enfant et la raison d'Etat (Paris, 1978) pp. 187. A sociological treatise, very mechanistic in nature.Google Scholar

Morel, M.-F., ‘Théories et pratiques de l'allaitement en France au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales de Démographie Historique (Paris, 1976). Based on medical texts of the Enlightenment.Google Scholar

Morel, M.-F., ‘Ville et campagne dans le discours médical sur la petite enfance au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales E.S.C. (Paris, 1977). Covers positive and negative aspects of the eighteenth-century countryside.Google Scholar

Morel, M.-F., ‘Madame Roland, sa fille et les médecins: prime éducation et médicalisation à l'époque des Lumières’, Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest (Rennes, 1979). Based on a private correspondence.Google Scholar

Néraudau, J-P., Eire enfant à Rome (Paris, 1984) pp. 411. A useful synthesis of work on a period for which few studies of children have been undertaken.Google Scholar

Pillorget, R., La tige et le rameau. Families anglaises et françaises, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1979) pp. 325. A useful comparison between France and England.Google Scholar

Sandrin, J., Enfants trouvés, enfants ouvriers, XVIIe-XIXe siècles (Paris, 1982) pp. 255. A minor synthesis, valuable in particular for the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

Segalen, M., Mari et femme dans la société paysanne (Paris, 1984) pp. 212. Details the segregation of male and female roles in the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

Shorter, E., The making of the modern family (New York, 1975); French edition, La naissance de la famille moderne (Paris, 1977) pp. 382. Includes a very suspect chapter on the ‘indifference’ exhibited by mothers in the past towards their infants.Google Scholar

Teysseire, D., La pédiatrie des Lumières, maladies et soins des enfants dans L'Encyclopédie et le Dictionnaire de Trévoux (Paris, 1982). A very limited study of two conduct books.Google Scholar

Thébaud, F., Quand nos grands-mères donnaient la vie, la maternité et France dans l'entre-deux-guerres (Lyon, 1986) pp. 315. Details the demographic, economic, social and attitudinal context to births in the 1920s and 1930s.CrossRefGoogle Scholar