Into the Dangerous World: Some Thoughts on Childhood and Its Costs (Counterblasts S.) - Softcover

Using the method and approach of an anthropologist, Marina Warner describes the tribal behaviour of the new savages - British adults in the late Eighties - and the declining role played by children in this new society. Children are perceived as being difficult, irrational and excessively demanding. Children are exploited, beaten up, sexually abused, farmed out to barbaric institutions as soon as they can speak. Warner argues persuasively and disturbingly that British society has reached a point where children might be better off not being born at all. The book addresses not only the more dramatic manifestations of anti-children attitudes in Britain, but the more mundane, socially accepted examples of intolerance; controversy as to whether children should attend their parents' dinner parties and so on is very widespread. Marina Warner is author of "Alone of All Her Sex", "Joan of Arc" and "Monuments & Maidens" (winner of the Fawcett Prize, 1988). She has published three novels, "In a Dark Wood", "The Skating Party" and "The Lost Father".