Annoated Bib

Annotated Bibliography
Brown, Marilyn R. "Images of Childhood." Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In
History and Society. 2.1 (2004): 449-463. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Nov. 2010.
Marilyn Brown takes her readers on a long journey starting with the fifteen century continuing all the way to the twenty-first century, where she clearly shows the attitude towards young innocent kids had changed. Brown goes into great details about how children were treated and lived during these seven centuries. Brown's goal is to show her readers how the image of children had changed. It had gotten so bad by the 18th century that children were being exploited and taken advantage of. Although the article is quite lengthy, I believe that it effectively demonstrated the readers about how the image of children had changed over time. Brown clearly makes her point in this article, was unbiased, and provided great examples to support her point.
Chadwick, Edwin. "Report of Poor Law Commissioner to the British Parliament on Sanitary
Conditions". Bloomu.edu. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. 1842. Web. 5 November 2010.
In his report, Chadwick discusses the living conditions and daily struggles of working families living in London between 1700 and 1799. The report makes suggestions on how
to improve on these factors. Chadwick especially wanted to help poor working families and protect younger children who were uneducated and those who were engaged in tough
work that would permanently destroy their bodies. I think Chadwick does a great job with his report. He was calling for improvements, which were desperately needed at that time. I agree with Chadwick that young kids should not be subjected to arduous work. Instead they should pursue an education, which will earn them a better living.
George, Dorothy, Mary. London Life in the 18th Century. Illinois: Academy Chicago Publishers,
2005. Print.
In the book "London Life in the 18th Century", George goes into great details about the conditions in London during the 18th century. In addition, she also paints images in the readers' minds about what it was like to live in London during that time. George even describes how malnutrition, maternal ignorance, bad water, dirty food, poor hygiene and overcrowding all contributed to an extremely high mortality rate for young kids. George succeeded in her goal, which was to give readers a better understanding of what life was like during this time period. I found George's book to be very insightful and a pleasure to read.
Gioia, Dana, Kennedy, X.J. Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
New York: Longman Publishers, 2007. Print.
This is where I found the poem text.
Harrison, James. "Blake's the Chimney Sweeper." Explicator 36.2 (2002): 1-3. Literary
Reference Center. Web. 4 November 2010.
The writer, Harrison, is contrasting two characters (the speaker and Tom Dacre) and is discussing how their different viewpoints and tones of voice affect our understanding. The speaker is a bit older and has many years of experience cleaning chimneys. The speaker actually believes that this job is his "calling". However, the less experienced Tom Dacre does not feel this way and is often sad when forced to do this job, which shows the irony of the story. I think Harrison's article is reliable, useful, and unbiased. Harrison's goals for this article are to provide readers with better understanding, show the irony and the big contrast in their viewpoints. Actually, the irony is what gives the poem its power, so Harrison wants his audience to pay attention to that. If one accepts it and the other knows it isn't fair, that is a big contrast in the viewpoints. I believe Harrison points out the irony to make readers think about the idea of fate. Remember that the readers know the boys' fate that the job will kill them, but at least the speaker does not. So we can feel sorry for the boy, even if he doesn't feel sorry for himself.
Malthus, Thomas. "Essay on Population". Fordham.edu. Fordham, 1798. Web. 5 November
2010.
In his essay, Malthus makes a point that there were many things that should be fixed during the 18th century, which include increasing population and poverty. Malthus believed that families were growing at a faster rate than the supply of food. Due to the growth in size, most families could not afford to buy food or supplies. The growth in population resulted in a decrease cost of labor, which caused problems for many families. Malthus made his point in this essay, although I believe that he used long and confusing words and sentences to describe things, which could have done in more articulated and

organized way. Basically, he was trying to convey that there were things which needed to be addressed during the 18th century. The increase in population was one of the problems, which forced many families to put their young children to work.
Murray, Christine. "18th Century London". PBS. PBS, 2001. Web. 6 November 2010.
In these articles, Murray's goal was to show that during the eighteenth century, London was a bad place for everybody; especially young children. Murray told us about how children were forced to work long hours and were paid very little or nothing at all.
Almost all of the lower-class children were forced to live in work- houses, because their parents could not afford to feed them. To keep the children from starving to death, parents would sell their children to people who could feed them. Also, she discussed about the living conditions, which were terrible. Families would drink dirty water, and would leave their trash everywhere. I think Murray does an exceptional job in describing the conditions during the 18th century, what people were going through, and how they were treated during that time. Murray's articles are simply a delight to read, and I would recommend them to everyone. Murray clearly, yet interestedly, proves her point about how this century in London was bad and unfavorable for children.
Schrumpf, Ellen."Child Labor in the West." Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History
and Society 1.1 (2004):159-162.Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Nov. 2010.
The point of this article is to provide the readers with some details on what young kids were forced to do. Ellen Schrumpf provides the readers with a brief look at the history of child labor in the West. Schrumpt tells that kids at the age of 4 had to perform tough jobs and were looked upon to contribute to the household income. Schrumpt also discusses
how this terrible crime lasted for centuries until laws against child labor were made. I think Schrimpfy did an excellent job with this article. She was unbiased and presented the article in a very unique way. I would surely read more of these kind of articles if written in the same style as this one. However, I have one suggestion for Schrimpfy- provide more information. I still have some glaring questions about the child
labor in the west. I think the article is great; however it would have been better if more details were provided.