'Pasts at play makes a valuable contribution to scholarship on informal learning, revealing how much more we understand about the history of education when we look beyond the school gates.'
Sian Pooley, Victorian Studies
Rachel Bryant Davies is a Lecturer in Comparative Literature at Queen Mary University of London
Barbara Gribling is a Visiting Researcher in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University
Introduction: pasts at play - Rachel Bryant Davies and Barbara Gribling
Part I: Biblical and archaeological pasts
1 Noah's Ark-aeology and nineteenth-century children - Melanie Keene
2 Bringing Egypt home: children's encounters with ancient Egypt in the long nineteenth century - Virginia Zimmerman
Part II: Classical pasts
3 Didactic heroes: masculinity, sexuality and exploration in the Argonaut story of Kingsley's The Heroes - Helen Lovatt
4 'Fun from the Classics': puzzling antiquity in The Boy's Own Paper - Rachel Bryant Davies
Part III: Medieval and early modern pasts
5 Youthful consumption and conservative visions: Robin Hood and Wat Tyler in late Victorian penny periodicals - Stephen Basdeo
6 A tale of two ladies? Stuart women as role models for Victorian and Edwardian girls and young women - Rosemary Mitchell
Part IV: Revived pasts
7 Tarry-at-home antiquarians: children's 'tour books' 1740-1840 - M. O. Grenby
8 Playing with the past: child consumers, pedagogy and British history games, c. 1780-1850 - Barbara Gribling
9 Re-enacting local history in the Stepney Children's Pageant, 1909 - Ellie Reid
Appendix A: A list of 'tour books' - M. O. Grenby
Appendix B: A list of British history-themed toys and games - Barbara Gribling
Index