Abstract
A brief glance at the title of the book already indicates the concerns and perspectives of its two authors. Contrary to the prevailing view, according to which the history of children during the Second World War is considered chiefly from the standpoint of evacuation, the present work centres on an entirely different aspect of childhood, and to childhood at that time. Without wishing to vitiate the horrific experiences in war, Berry Mayall and Virginia Morrow succeed in highlighting the substantial participation to social welfare made by children in England throughout the war years. No less astonishing from a contemporary perspective is the fact that children were explicitly called upon by the government to make a contribution to the war effort.
Both authors draw on a very wide range of source material to find an answer to the main question of research. In addition to secondary literature, legal texts, contemporary debates, pamphlets and more, children themselves have their say in the form of school essays written at the time and in numerous newspaper articles.
After introducing preliminary aspects in which the authors, among others things, explain their sociological view of childhood, and define what they understand by the term ‘work’, the second chapter initially focuses on thought about childhood and children between the World Wars. This is followed up by pursuing the question about the extent to which childhood between 1900 and 1939 was conceived as a time of work or a time of learning. The fourth chapter deals with various aspects that had an immediate impact on children during the war, such as health care, the discussion on education, evacuation measures and the attempts to use children for war work. The work of young children forms the focus of the fifth chapter, and in the paragraph that follows, children’s contribution in agriculture is considered in detail. In chapter 7, research centres on the service to the state rendered by older children, which is followed by an examination of child labour within organisations. Mayall and Morrow provide an additional summary of their central findings, and connect or compare these to present-day concepts of childhood.
Starting out from the assumption that current forms of knowledge exert an immediate impact on the lives of children, the authors then proceed to scrutinise the ideas of childhood between the World Wars (1918–1939). A number of disciplines, such as developmental psychology, have continued to evoke established ideas about childhood as, for example, a phase of vulnerability that requires protection. However, the book uncovers deep-seated thought structures which led the authors to conclude that social class and the affiliated prejudices – such as the assumption that working-class children are less intelligent than their contemporaries in higher classes – were a driving force, and thus hindered the realisation of more recent theories. Visionary ideas from the period, among others, of educationalists who, for example, wished to see childhood as a phase of learning and driven no less by the concern that working children would occupy jobs of young workers, had as good as no influence on the majority of children. Children of wealthy parents frequently experienced childhood as preparation for later taking up leadership functions in the service of the state. From working-class children, by contrast, it was expected that they contribute to the division of labour and that they carry out both paid work (e.g. running errands), as well as housework. It was above all girls who would supply domestic service, or who would take care of their younger siblings and from whom it was expected, in keeping with their gender, that they become good housewives and mothers. Hence, most children spent their childhood primarily as earners not learners. Whereas, due to their involvement in the work process, children were less dependent upon their parents than is the case today; during the period in question, they were considered subordinates, and absolute obedience was demanded of them. An additional factor constitutive of childhood was the general endeavour to inculcate in them Christian as well as democratic values and patriotism. Berry Mayall and Virginia Morrow explain how children were considered as part of the nation and were to see themselves as such.
All these social conditions were the foundation that made it possible to call upon children to actively participate in the war effort. The contribution of children was necessary, no less due to the lack of manpower, nutrition and financial resources – and ultimately many were called up for active duty. Following the treatment of, among other things, evacuation measures during the war together with the discussion that led up to the Education Act of 1944, and the vivid and impressive description of the means used to call upon children to provide help (such as films, children’s stories and pamphlets), chapters 5–8 of the book are given over to the issue of child labour. The diversity of the work which children performed is as considerable as it is astonishing. Children assumed responsibility for the planting and harvesting of crops, the management of gardening work, produced marketable products, collected scrap material, organised accommodation for refugees, secured buildings against possible bombing raids and took on the duties and tasks of adults, where the latter had been called up to the front – just to mention but a few obligations. The authors distinguish both the age of the children (according to the present legal situation, a child is defined as a person under 18 years of age), and each of the chapters is given over to one specific feature. As mentioned above, Mayall and Morrow work with a broad variety of sources ranging from newspaper interviews, school essays from the war days, autobiographies, journals of various youth organisations which were published during the war, as well as several surveys on the activities of children at that time which, to some extent, show children’s very diverse perspectives on the war. Terrible experiences as well as idyllic memories are described. The work shows how children of wealthy parents were enlisted for work in the service of the state no less than were children of poorer families who, as mentioned, were anyway considered part of the labouring population. Patriotic and Christian education occupies the foreground of the treatment of youth organisations (e.g. the Scouts and the Junior Red Cross). One of the book’s key insights turns on the shift of attitudes among many adults towards children during the war years. The children responded to the negative expectations of adults with positive behaviour and so brought about a shift in consciousness. This shift is particularly well documented in the sphere of agriculture. Until today, working-class children are considered by the majority as a problem. Indeed, the common belief was that they were morally depraved or at least threatened by such depravity. As Mayall and Morrow’s research suggests, through the sheer extent of their willingness and industry, it was children themselves who prompted a different perception whereby they came to be viewed as an asset. What also became evident was the role of schools, which, as institutional sites, were best suited to mediate the state’s expectations to the children. Remarkably, over the course of their research on schools, the authors noted a further change, namely, a change in the teacher–pupil relationship as a consequence of working side by side during the Second World War. It was through this, and through changes in the school’s activities (e.g. procurement of foodstuffs), that a way of thinking began emerging which did not make a strict distinction between learning and work, but which conceived work as a part of learning, and vice versa.
Berry Mayall and Virginia Morrow provide a highly critical comparative presentation of prevailing pre-war and present-day concepts of childhood. Based on the idea of children as agents, and the result that children performed and continue to perform socially useful work, the authors argue, among others, that work carried out by children ought to be valued more, and that greater free space should be awarded children for activities beyond formal school work. Furthermore, they also argue in favour of children having a greater say in politics. Only then can the idea of childhood as a purely preparatory phase be overcome and the child’s right to self-determination be guaranteed.
Thanks to its sociological perspectives on childhood(s), the present work should not solely be of interest to historians, but to research scientists of childhood as well. Furthermore, owing to its scholarly exposition, the work should also provide students with an accessible introduction to the subject.
As a whole, the book succeeds in enriching both the view of childhood and the life of the child during the Second World War in England, thereby inspiring the reader to further critical scrutiny of present-day notions of childhood.