Childhood is a socially constructed state that can differ significantly from culture to culture and period to period. The history of childhood is rapidly emerging as an important area of study. Neil Sutherland looks at children's lives in modern, industrialized, pre-television Canada, from before the First World War to the 1960s.

Based on adult memories of childhood, this book investigates a wide selection of experiences of growing up. Sutherland lays out the structure of children's lives in such settings as the home, the classroom, the church, the streets, and the playgrounds - in short, in the communities of childhood. He explains how children arrived at their gender, class, and other identities, and how they came to adopt the values they did. Sutherland focuses on recurrent, common features of the everyday life of children.

This book offers a unique, child-centred approach developed by a leading expert on the history of Canadian childhood. Written in straightforward, jargon-free language and illustrated with numerous photographs, it will be of special interest to those in the fields of social and educational history. Also, because Sutherland is successful in describing the perceptions and feelings of children, it will intrigue anyone who grew up in this period or who wants to understand the experiences of friends and family who did.