Social history of the proletary child: contributions of Friedrich Engels’ work to the understanding of the theme

Abstract

Within the possible intentionalities, this article put itself as a challenge to contribute to the composition of a proposal of proletarian child’s social history, considering the idealistic, non-historical, hybrid, partial and decontextualized historical interpretations and perspectives that exist on visions, meanings and ways of conceiving the children and the concept of childhood from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to present days. When analyzing the national and international academic production, we find a common denominator: even though there is a wide variety and amount of research linked to various areas of the child and his childhood, studies on proletarian children in times of profound economic and social changes that occurred in the nineteenth century in Europe is almost insignificant. Using the concepts of historical and dialectical materialism, we analyze the contributions of “The Condition of the Working Class in England”, by Friedrich Engels, to understand the theme. Based on the contributions of Engels' classic work, the study concludes that it is possible to visualize a new configuration of childhood concept and a new childhood sense, of a materialistic and non-idealistic nature, based fundamentally on the proletarian children’s role in times of social change. When it is elaborated and resized by the working class, it needs to be recognized and incorporated by the academy.