Review by Choice Review
Nardinelli (Clemson University) attempts to marry economic analysis to the historical phenomenon of child labor. He begins with the traditional literature critical of the practice before setting up households' and firms' decisions to supply or demand child labor in the now standard manner suggested by Gary S. Becker. He then attempts to establish that the basic attitudes and preferences of English households did not change between 1600 and 1900 so that changes in the family economy and the economic role of children could be the result of changes in the usual economic variables--prices, incomes, and technology. There follow chapters on the possible exploitation of children during the Industrial Revolution and on the Factory Acts before he turns to a comparative study of child labor and factory legislation in England, France, Germany, Japan, and the US. The study is long on hypotheses suggested by economics but relatively short on hard evidence on issues other than the exploitation of English children in the neoclassical sense of that term. Nonetheless, a fascinating addition to supplementary reading lists that should stimulate helpful debate and discussion. Upper-division and graduate collections. -D. E. Moggridge, University of Toronto
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
