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Small MattersCanadian Children in Sickness and Health, 1900-1940 |
eBook Available
An innovative study of the struggle for healthy children in early twentieth-century Canada.
What was it like to be young and sick in the past? Who taught children how to be healthy and what were they expected to learn? In Small Matters, Mona Gleason explores how medical professionals, lay practitioners, and parents understood young patients and how children responded.
During the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in the interwar decades, a number of changes took shape within the field of child healthcare - the rise of pediatrics as a medical profession, efforts to ameliorate maternal and infant mortality rates, and the shift of focus from controlling contagious diseases to the prevention of illness. Gleason makes use of oral histories throughout this period of health and welfare reform to shed new light on children's attitudes toward their medical treatment, their largely unexplored experiences of hospitalization and disability, and the importance of teachers and health curriculum to the development of "healthy habits." By focusing on children's medical treatment beyond the doctor's office, and by paying particular attention to the experience of marginalized children, Gleason makes a major contribution to the history of Canadian childhood and healthcare.
The first work of its kind, Small Matters explores how children faced death, endured illness, and learned to be healthy in the context of their families and communities.
During the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in the interwar decades, a number of changes took shape within the field of child healthcare - the rise of pediatrics as a medical profession, efforts to ameliorate maternal and infant mortality rates, and the shift of focus from controlling contagious diseases to the prevention of illness. Gleason makes use of oral histories throughout this period of health and welfare reform to shed new light on children's attitudes toward their medical treatment, their largely unexplored experiences of hospitalization and disability, and the importance of teachers and health curriculum to the development of "healthy habits." By focusing on children's medical treatment beyond the doctor's office, and by paying particular attention to the experience of marginalized children, Gleason makes a major contribution to the history of Canadian childhood and healthcare.
The first work of its kind, Small Matters explores how children faced death, endured illness, and learned to be healthy in the context of their families and communities.
Details
Part of the McGill-Queen’s/AMS Healthcare Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society (number 39 in series)
232 Pages, 6 x 9
15 drawings, 2 tables
ISBN 9780773541337
May 2013
Formats: Paperback, eBook
"Small Matters has an excellent grasp of national and international secondary literature and is based on an impressive range of sources. The result is a rich account of majority and marginal experiences and a book that vividly captures the experiences of First Nations and rural children." Suzanne Morton, History, McGill University
“An excellent book that will be of great interest to scholars working in childhood studies past and present, and the history of education and health.” H-Childhood
"Small Matters is an innovative and important piece of scholarship that deserves to be read by historians interested in childhood, education, colonialism, medicine, oral history, and the family." The Canadian Historical Review
"Well situated in both national and international scholarship, Gleason’s work makes an impressive case for the significance of size and age as important categories of historical analysis, while at the same time, arguing for a more complex and dynamic understanding of children’s experiences with health and sickness both within and outside of the medical sphere. As Gleason admirably shows, moving beyond the recurring dichotomy of the powerless child and powerful adult to focus instead on the variety of encounters and experiences between young and old, aptly reveals that “relationships between generations were not simply hierarchical and oppositional, but were thoroughly negotiated, dynamic, and contingent.” Small Matters, then, avoids essentializing the perspectives of both the young and the adult, but commendably succeeds in bringing the experiences and voices of children into the Canadian historiography on health and medicine." Bulletin of the History of Medicine
“An excellent book that will be of great interest to scholars working in childhood studies past and present, and the history of education and health.” H-Childhood
"Small Matters is an innovative and important piece of scholarship that deserves to be read by historians interested in childhood, education, colonialism, medicine, oral history, and the family." The Canadian Historical Review
"Well situated in both national and international scholarship, Gleason’s work makes an impressive case for the significance of size and age as important categories of historical analysis, while at the same time, arguing for a more complex and dynamic understanding of children’s experiences with health and sickness both within and outside of the medical sphere. As Gleason admirably shows, moving beyond the recurring dichotomy of the powerless child and powerful adult to focus instead on the variety of encounters and experiences between young and old, aptly reveals that “relationships between generations were not simply hierarchical and oppositional, but were thoroughly negotiated, dynamic, and contingent.” Small Matters, then, avoids essentializing the perspectives of both the young and the adult, but commendably succeeds in bringing the experiences and voices of children into the Canadian historiography on health and medicine." Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Mona Gleason is a historian in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia.
Acknowledgments xi
Illustrations xv
Introduction: The Intimate Landscape of Health in the History
of Children and Childhood 3
1 Doctored Bodies: Professional Medical Discourse and Children’s
Embodied Difference 21
2 Florence, Marc, Alice, and Theresa: Healthy Bodies and Domestic
Doctoring, 1910s to the 1920s 46
3 Shirley, Lily, Jack, and Lina: Healthy Bodies and Domestic
Doctoring, 1920s to the 1940s 67
4 Learning the Body: Schools, Curriculum, and Health 85
5 Treated Bodies: Hospitalization 102
6 Reforming the Body: Doctors, Educators, and Attitudes Towards
Disability in Childhood 119
Conclusion: Small Matters: Historical Meaning and Children’s
Embodiment 138
Appendices
1 Causes of Infant Death in Canada 149
2 Participant Information 150
3 My Health Record 152
Notes 153
Selected Bibliography 187
Index 203
Illustrations xv
Introduction: The Intimate Landscape of Health in the History
of Children and Childhood 3
1 Doctored Bodies: Professional Medical Discourse and Children’s
Embodied Difference 21
2 Florence, Marc, Alice, and Theresa: Healthy Bodies and Domestic
Doctoring, 1910s to the 1920s 46
3 Shirley, Lily, Jack, and Lina: Healthy Bodies and Domestic
Doctoring, 1920s to the 1940s 67
4 Learning the Body: Schools, Curriculum, and Health 85
5 Treated Bodies: Hospitalization 102
6 Reforming the Body: Doctors, Educators, and Attitudes Towards
Disability in Childhood 119
Conclusion: Small Matters: Historical Meaning and Children’s
Embodiment 138
Appendices
1 Causes of Infant Death in Canada 149
2 Participant Information 150
3 My Health Record 152
Notes 153
Selected Bibliography 187
Index 203
9780773554870
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