# What's Happened to Childhood?

- Institution: Gresham College
- Speaker: Professor Hugh Cunningham
- Year: 2014
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: History
- Source: [Gresham College](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/whats-happened-childhood)
- Licence: [Educational use (Gresham College's terms)](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/terms-and-conditions)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

Our understanding of childhood is shaped by two narratives. The first describes how children underwent horrific experiences in the factories and mines of the Industrial Revolution, but were then rescued for an increasingly ‘healthy and happy’ childhood. The second, dominant since the 1970s, tells how childhood is getting worse, becoming ‘toxic’, the deaths of James Bulger, Victoria Climbié and Baby P evidence for it. How far do these narratives about childhood reflect the reality of the lives of children past and present?

## Lectures

1. [What's Happened to Childhood?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/whats-happened-childhood/f79ccdb3a1d3) (YouTube)