pt. I. Children's welfare. Juvenile justice: from "child saving" to "public accountability" ; "The Pontius Pilate routine": government responses to child abuse ; "Illusory promises": state aid to poor children
pt. II. Children's Work. "Inducting into adulthood": state reactions to the labor of children and adolescents
pt. III. Children's education. "Laying down principles in the dark": the consequences of compulsory secondary education ; The return of the infant school: twentieth century preschool education ; Public education of disabled children: "rewriting one of the saddest chapters"
pt. IV. Children's health. "Shaped up" by the state: government attempts to improve children's diets, exercise regimes, and physical fitness ; Mandatory medicine: twentieth-century childhood immunization ; Conclusion: two cheers for a "failed" century.