NTM. 2025 Sep 20. doi: 10.1007/s00048-025-00428-2. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
The history of childhood has recently gained increasing attention in the history of medicine. This essay review discusses key publications addressing care relations, institutionalization, and medicalization of childhood. It focuses on studies of pediatrics, children’s convalescent homes, infant institutions, and the gendered dimensions of pediatric practices. These works reveal how closely historical knowledge orders were tied to violence and control, and how strongly medicalized institutions shaped childhoods. At the same time, processes of de- and restructuring since the 1960s indicate a shift of interpretive authority from medicine to psychology and pedagogy. The review argues for a stronger intersectional and gender-historical perspective to grasp the dynamics of power, care, and knowledge in shaping children’s lives.
PMID:40974541 | DOI:10.1007/s00048-025-00428-2
