| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 276 words from this article are provided below; about 556 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Europe: Ancient and Medieval

Beryl Rawson. Children and Childhood in Roman Italy. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. Pp. xiv, 419.

Since the 1980s, Beryl Rawson has transformed the study of the Roman family. Her previous publications have moved this subject from the sidelines to the mainstream of Roman history. Now Rawson has produced a comprehensive study of Roman children and childhood. In future all researchers in childhood studies, not just those interested in the Romans, will use this book as their starting point. In the past decades ancient historians have refined their methodological approach to "muted groups": that is, those members of society who do not write their own history and whose lives are always seen through the prism of another's point of view. This methodology, originating with disciplines such as social science, anthropology, and literary criticism, has allowed historians deeper insights into the function of social groups, like children, within a society. Rawson's book acknowledges the result. After a comprehensive "state of the subject" introduction, the book is divided into two main sections: representations of children in Italy, and the life course. The first section is titled so as to highlight the fact that we cannot access the reality of Roman children's lives. They left no record of their own experiences. However the hopes and expectations of their parents and of society, recorded in a wide range of literary and epigraphic sources, and visual and material culture, allow Rawson to create a credible history of a child's life course in the second section of her book. The tension between representation and "common sense reality" overtly underlies the whole volume.

. . .

There are about 556 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.