Introduction: Small Graves: Histories of Childhood, Death and Emotion

Abstract

This Introduction to Small Graves: Death, Emotion and Childhood in Premodern Europe surveys the historiographical background for this collection, discussing the rise of childhood studies and the history of emotion, and the literature around child death in Western Europe. It situates the collection’s chapters against this background, highlighting their contribution to this wider discussion, connections that emerge across the essays, the significant ways the collection has moved the field forward, and questions and areas for further research. It argues that applying history of emotions methodologies to the history of child death not only provides insight into how parents emotionally responded to this phenomenon, but to children’s position in society more broadly.