Women and the shaping of the nation's young/ Mary Hilton

Contents: Introduction. Part I The Young Citizen: Issues of Enlightenment, Gender, and Virtue: Manners, patrimony, gender: education in mid 18th-century England; 'Wiser and better': constructing a rational piety for girls; 'Partizans of liberty and necessity': forming the enlightened citizen; 'An honourable distinction': enriching the familial culture of rational dissent; 'Nature's coyest secrets': enlarging the sphere of ideas. Part II Vice and Misery: Educating the Young in the Counter Enlightenment: 'The paths of religion and virtue': reaching and teaching the children of the poor; Schemes of salvation: instructing the young in piety and economy. Part III Childhood Contested: Social and Educational Reform in the Mid 19th Century: 'One human family': rescuing the children of the 'dangerous and perishing classes'; 'The elevation of child nature': planting the English kindergarten. Conclusion: the long conversation; Bibliography; Index.