Medieval Children

Children's Games, 1560, Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The book uses a wide range of sources to refute Philippe Ariès's Centuries of Childhood famous theses of the medieval nonexistence of "childhood" as an idea and of apathetic medieval parenting.[2] Orme states that childhood was a phase distinct from the rest of life,[3] "medieval children were ourselves, five hundred or a thousand years ago" with parents who genuinely cherished and grieved for their children, similar to modern parents.[2] The book's refutation of Ariès is diffuse, broaching his thesis but not other aspects of Centuries of Childhood.[1] Orme uses examples from the English Middle Ages where Ariès uses the French.[1] Orme's source materials include primers, journals, coroners' records, and shoes.[2]

Orme shows childhood to be expensive, with clothing like bibs and swaddlebands alongside books and community expenses.[3] Children were breastfed and given special shoes to wear and items to chew.[3] They would dress up, accidentally die while playing, and hurt animals.[3]

Critics Stephen Metcalf and Benjamin Schwarz separately agreed that the book successfully dismantled Ariès's thesis,[2][1] its primary goal.[1] The Atlantic's Benjamin Schwarz called the book "a model of accessible scholarly history" and lauded its illustrations for an academic work.[2] Slate's Stephen Metcalf praised the book for its scholarship and utility, but criticized the book's timing and lack of imagination.[1] He adds that Orme's language is "phlegmatic and common-sensical" where Ariès was "oracular and tendentious", which was used to make the era appear familiar or alien, respectively.[1] The Economist criticized the exclusion of females from the book.[3]