This book has been written for the delight not only of child-readers, but of such of their elders as like and understand small boys. Its aim has been to present a vivid and faithful picture of the daily life of the average boy from the epoch of the cave-dwellers to the middle of Queen Victoria's reign, and to trace, by the way, the evolution of the modern attitude toward children, from that of the earlier and less sympathetic periods in history. Some place has been given to the ideas of theorists such as Sir Thomas Elyot, Dean Colet, Roger Ascham, James I and VI, and Thomas Day, to say nothing of those arch-swishers, King Solomon and Orbilius: but for the most part the attention is focused upon the boys themselves, their studies, their sports, and the color which their lives took from their surroundings. To make the chronicle more real and convincing, illustrations have been gathered together from many sources - from museum exhibits, ancient manuscripts, and portraits in private collections and in public galleries. Each of these does, in good truth, ?illustrate? some point or some episode in the accompanying text. It has thematic chapters about boys, from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Norse boys, Anglo-Saxon boys, Norman Boys, Medieval Boys, the Renaissance Boy, and the 17th through 19th centuries (plus an index).