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Article: European Industrialization
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
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European Industrialization
It is tempting to assume that the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century was a disaster for children. There are the familiar images of child workers struggling in the mills, of wretched street urchins in the slums, and of poor Oliver Twist half starving on gruel in the workhouse. Yet even in the British case this was a very partial reflection of reality. The young factory operative or the slum child was the exception rather than the rule during the nineteenth century. In the first place, industrialization was a slow and protracted process that affected different regions of Europe in a number of ways. During the first half of the nineteenth ...