From the dedication to the final page, this is a brilliant, enlightening, often poignant, study. Editors Brockliss (history, Magdalen College, Oxford University) and Montgomery (social anthropology, The Open University, UK) and their colleagues present a diachronic look at children and violence in Western cultures. In each of six sections a subtopic is examined through time: child sacrifice; infanticide, abortion and abandonment; physical and emotional cruelty; working children; violent children, and lastly, how children have coped with violence and abuse. The essays raise questions about how we view the past treatment of children and our own intentions today. The authors look at positive and negative effects of such innovations as child labor laws and compulsory education, as well as shifting attitudes toward corporal punishment. The format of the book insists that the reader lay aside comfortable notions of modern superiority and give a hard look at the way we treat out children today. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)