Editing Lost Generation (section)

===As children and adolescents===
====Family life and upbringing====
[[File:StateLibQld 1 169147 Andersen family photographed in their living room at Swanfels, Queensland, ca. 1900.jpg|thumb|Family in [[Queensland]] pictured at home (circa 1900)]]
When the Lost Generation was growing up, the ideal family arrangement was generally seen as the man of the house being the breadwinner and primary authority figure while his wife dedicated herself to caring for the home and children. Most, even less well-off, married couples attempted to conform to this ideal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Family Life: New Roles for Wives and Children |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/family-life-new-roles-wives-and-children |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200710/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/family-life-new-roles-wives-and-children |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=8 March 2010 |title=Everywoman in 1910: No vote, poor pay, little help – Why the world had to change |url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/everywoman-in-1910-no-vote-poor-206289 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130301200354/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/everywoman-in-1910-no-vote-poor-206289 |archive-date=1 March 2013 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=mirror.co.uk |language=en}}</ref> It was common for family members of three different generations to share a home.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 March 2017 |title=Three-Generation Households: Are They History? |url=https://www.silvercentury.org/2017/03/three-generation-households-are-they-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200700/https://www.silvercentury.org/2017/03/three-generation-households-are-they-history/ |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |website=Silver Century Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> Wealthier households also tended to include domestic servants, though their numbers would have varied from a single maid to a large team depending on how well-off the family was.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wallis |first=Lucy |date=21 September 2012 |title=Servants: A life below stairs |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19544309 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624222510/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19544309 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=17 June 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Public concern for the welfare of children was intensifying by the later 19th century with laws being passed and societies formed to prevent their abuse. The state increasingly gained the legal right to intervene in private homes and family life to protect minors from harm.<ref name="Myers1">{{Cite book |last=Myers |first=John E. B. |title=Family Law Quarterly |publisher=Sage Publishing |chapter=A Short History of Child Protection in America |access-date=20 June 2021 |chapter-url=https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/35363_Chapter1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317220740/https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/35363_Chapter1.pdf |archive-date=17 March 2021 |url-status=live}} <!-- https://www.jstor.org/stable/25740668 --> </ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A history of child protection |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/childhood-youth/working-young-people/history-child-protection |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624202903/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/childhood-youth/working-young-people/history-child-protection |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021 |website=OpenLearn |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Swain |first=Shurlee |date=October 2014 |title=History of child protection legislation |url=https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Research%20Report%20-%20History%20of%20child%20protection%20legislation%20-%20Institutional%20responses.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119015451/https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Research%20Report%20-%20History%20of%20child%20protection%20legislation%20-%20Institutional%20responses.pdf |archive-date=19 January 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021}}</ref> However, beating children for misbehaviour was not only common but viewed as the duty of a responsible caregiver.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Geoghegan |first=Tom |date=5 March 2008 |title=Was childhood ever innocent? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7276939.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204904/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7276939.stm |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=20 June 2021 |language=en-GB}}</ref>


====Health and living conditions====
[[File:Mary Cassatt - The Child's Bath - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.85|''[[The Child's Bath]]'' by [[Mary Cassatt]] from 1893 of a woman giving a child a wash. The link between hygiene and good health was becoming better understood in Western society by the end of the 19th century and frequent bathing had become common.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elmasry |first=Faiza |date=22 April 2020 |title=Historian Explores the Evolution of Personal Hygiene |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/science-health_historian-explores-evolution-personal-hygiene/6187950.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724153613/https://www.voanews.com/science-health/historian-explores-evolution-personal-hygiene |archive-date=24 July 2021 |access-date=24 July 2021 |website=Voice of America |language=en}}</ref>]]

Sewer systems designed to remove human waste from urban areas had become widespread in industrial cities by the late 19th century, helping to reduce the spread of diseases such as [[cholera]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=How London got its Victorian sewers |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/engineering-technology/how-london-got-its-victorian-sewers |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624212420/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/engineering-technology/how-london-got-its-victorian-sewers |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=OpenLearn |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Sewers |url=https://greywateraction.org/history-sewers/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624205952/https://greywateraction.org/history-sewers/ |archive-date=24 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=Greywater Action |language=en-US}}</ref> Legal standards for the quality of drinking water also began to be introduced.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Slow Sand Filtration of Water |url=https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/ssf9241540370.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008223315/http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/ssf9241540370.pdf |archive-date=8 October 2012 |access-date=17 December 2012}}</ref> However, the introduction of electricity was slower, and during the formative years of the Lost Generation [[Gas lighting|gas lights]] and candles were still the most common form of lighting.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Electric Light System |url=https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628112332/https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm |archive-date=28 June 2021 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=Thomas Edison National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) |language=en}}</ref>

Though statistics on child mortality dating back to the beginning of the Lost Generation's lifespan are limited, the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] report that in 1900 one in ten American infants died before their first birthday.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Achievements in Public Health, 1900–1999: Healthier Mothers and Babies |url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723080557/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm |archive-date=23 July 2021 |access-date=30 June 2021 |website=www.cdc.gov}}</ref> Figures for the United Kingdom state that during the final years of the 19th century, mortality in the first five years of childhood was plateauing at a little under one in every four births. At around one in three in 1800, the early childhood mortality rate had declined overall throughout the next hundred years but would fall most sharply during the first half of the 20th century, reaching less than one in twenty by 1950. This meant that members of the Lost Generation were somewhat less likely to die at a very early age than their parents and grandparents, but were significantly more likely to do so than children born even a few decades later.<ref>{{Cite web |title=United Kingdom: child mortality rate 1800–2020 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041714/united-kingdom-all-time-child-mortality-rate/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327175529/https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041714/united-kingdom-all-time-child-mortality-rate/ |archive-date=27 March 2021 |access-date=30 June 2021 |website=Statista |language=en}}</ref>

====Literacy and education====
[[File:Snickarkrogen skola 1900.jpg|thumb|Class photo taken at a school in Sweden (1900)]]

[[Child labour law|Laws restricting child labour]] in factories had begun to appear from around 1840 onwards<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Sullivan |first=Michael E. |date=1 January 2006 |title=Review of Kastner, Dieter, Kinderarbeit im Rheinland: Entstehung und Wirkung des ersten preußischen Gesetzes gegen die Arbeit von Kindern in Fabriken von 1839 |url=https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11358 |access-date=14 November 2015 |website=www.h-net.org |archive-date=3 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903162421/https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11358 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hindman |first=Hugh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MrfBQAAQBAJ |title=The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey |date=18 December 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-45386-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Timeline |url=http://gbchildlaborinamerica.weebly.com/timeline.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121025811/http://gbchildlaborinamerica.weebly.com/timeline.html |archive-date=21 November 2015 |access-date=14 November 2015 |website=Child labor in the U.S}}</ref> and by the end of the 19th century, [[compulsory education]] had been introduced throughout much of the Western world for at least a few years of childhood.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mass Primary Education in the Nineteenth Century |url=https://www.sociostudies.org/almanac/articles/mass_primary_education_in_the_nineteenth_century/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.sociostudies.org/almanac/articles/mass_primary_education_in_the_nineteenth_century/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.sociostudies.org}}</ref><ref name="EUR">{{Cite book |last1=Grinin |first1=Leonid E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NtZbDgAAQBAJ&q=Globalistics+and+globalization+studies:+Global+Transformations+and+Global+Future |title=Globalistics and globalization studies: Global Transformations and Global Future. |last2=Ilyin |first2=Ilya V. |last3=Herrmann |first3=Peter |last4=Korotayev |first4=Andrey V. |publisher=ООО "Издательство "Учитель" |year=2016 |isbn=978-5-7057-5026-9 |page=66 |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://books.google.com/books?id=NtZbDgAAQBAJ&q=Globalistics+and+globalization+studies:+Global+Transformations+and+Global+Future. |archive-date=20 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> By 1900, levels of illiteracy had fallen to less than 11% in the United States, around 3% in Great Britain, and only 1% in Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) |url=https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506171358/https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp |archive-date=6 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=nces.ed.gov |language=EN}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lloyd |first=Amy |title=Education, Literacy and the Reading Public |url=https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/intl-gps/intl-gps-essays/full-ghn-contextual-essays/ghn_essay_bln_lloyd3_website.pdf |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |quote=...by 1900 illiteracy for both sexes [in England and Wales] had dropped to around 3 percent... by the late nineteenth century, the gap [in illiteracy] between England, Wales and Scotland had narrowed and closed}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Parallel worlds: literacy as a yardstick for development |url=https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/chapters/parallel-worlds-literacy-yardstick-development |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183903/https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/chapters/parallel-worlds-literacy-yardstick-development |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021}}</ref> However, the problems of illiteracy and lack of school provision or attendance were felt more acutely in parts of Eastern and Southern Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mironov |first=Boris N. |date=1991 |title=The Development of Literacy in Russia and the USSR from the Tenth to the Twentieth Centuries |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/368437 |journal=History of Education Quarterly |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=229–252 |doi=10.2307/368437 |issn=0018-2680 |jstor=368437 |s2cid=144460404 |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-date=30 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130110338/https://www.jstor.org/stable/368437 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=May 2019 |title=Moving towards mass literacy in Spain, 1860–1930 |url=https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/discussion_papers/BeltranDiezMartinezTiradoworkshopBdECEPR_short.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183902/https://cepr.org/sites/default/files/discussion_papers/BeltranDiezMartinezTiradoworkshopBdECEPR_short.pdf |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021}}</ref>

Schools of this time period tended to emphasise strict discipline, expecting pupils to memorize information by rote. To help deal with teacher shortages, older students were often used to help supervise and educate their younger peers. Dividing children into classes based on age became more common as schools grew.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Education – Western education in the 19th century |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Western-education-in-the-19th-century |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416211705/https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Western-education-in-the-19th-century |archive-date=16 April 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>

However, while elementary schooling was becoming increasingly accessible for Western children at the turn of the century, secondary education was still much more of a luxury. Only 11% of American fourteen to seventeen-year-olds were enrolled at High School in 1900, a figure which had only marginally increased by 1910.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 1900s Education: Overview {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1900s-education-overview |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524012723/https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1900s-education-overview |archive-date=24 May 2021 |access-date=7 June 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Though the school leaving age was officially meant to be 14 by 1900, until the First World War, most British children could leave school through rules put in place by local authorities at 12 or 13 years old.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 April 2008 |title=The school leaving age: what can we learn from history? |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/the-school-leaving-age-what-can-we-learn-from-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608002058/https://www.historyextra.com/period/the-school-leaving-age-what-can-we-learn-from-history/ |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=7 June 2021 |website=HistoryExtra |language=en}}</ref> It was not uncommon at the end of the 19th century for Canadian children to leave school at nine or ten years old.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Oreopoulos |first=Philip |date=May 2005 |title=Canadian Compulsory School Laws and their Impact on Educational Attainment and Future Earnings |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2005251-eng.pdf?st=VMTvj4NC |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827121003/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2005251-eng.pdf?st=VMTvj4NC |archive-date=27 August 2021 |access-date=8 June 2021 |website=Statistics Canada}}</ref>

====Leisure and play====
[[File:StateLibQld 2 201815 Three children playing with their toys in the backyard, 1890-1900.jpg|thumb|Children playing with toys (c. 1890s)]]

By the 1890s, children's toys entered into mass production.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Toy Timeline |url=https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2012/05/21/toy-timeline/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183853/https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2012/05/21/toy-timeline/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Brighton museums |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 1893, the British toy company [[W. Britain|William Britain]] revolutionized the production of toy soldiers by devising the method of [[hollow casting]], making soldiers that were cheaper and lighter than their competitors.<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 June 2007 |title=Hampshire Museums Service |url=http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum/toys/history/toy_soldiers.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614232918/http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum/toys/history/toy_soldiers.html |access-date=25 August 2008|archive-date=14 June 2007}}</ref> This led to metal toy soldiers, which had previously been the preserve of boys from wealthier families, gaining mass appeal during the late [[Victorian era|Victorian]] and [[Edwardian era|Edwardian period]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bedford |first=Gavin |title=Toy Soldiers ... Just child's play? |url=https://eghammuseum.org/toy-soldiers-just-childs-play/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://eghammuseum.org/toy-soldiers-just-childs-play/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Egham Museum |language=en-GB}}</ref> Dolls often sold by street vendors at a low price were popular with girls. [[Teddy bear]]s appeared for the first time in the early 1900s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 December 2014 |title=Popular Toys in History: What Your Ancestors Played With |url=https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/popular-toys-in-history-what-your-ancestors-played-with/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183853/https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/popular-toys-in-history-what-your-ancestors-played-with/ |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Ancestry Blog |language=en-US}}</ref> Tin plated [[penny toy]]s were also sold by street sellers for a single penny.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An Edwardian Christmas |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/penny-toys-and-poverty-edwardian-christmas |access-date=2021-12-30 |website=Museum of London |language=en |archive-date=30 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230224237/https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/penny-toys-and-poverty-edwardian-christmas |url-status=live}}</ref>

The turn of the 20th century saw a surge in public park building in parts of the west to provide public space in rapidly growing industrial towns.<ref>{{Cite web |title=America's Most Visited City Parks |url=http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/citypark_facts/ccpe_Most_Visited_Parks_09.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015111753/http://www.tpl.org/content_documents/citypark_facts/ccpe_Most_Visited_Parks_09.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 October 2009 |access-date=13 December 2009}}</ref> They provided a means for children from different backgrounds to play and interact together,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Research reveals rowdy past of UK's parks |url=https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/research-reveals-rowdy-past-of-uks-parks/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814221034/https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/research-reveals-rowdy-past-of-uks-parks/ |archive-date=14 August 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=manchester |language=en}}</ref> sometimes in specially designed facilities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Urban Parks of the Past and Future |url=https://www.pps.org/article/futureparks |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520184858/https://www.pps.org/article/futureparks |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.pps.org}}</ref> They held frequent concerts and performances.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 February 2016 |title=Parks and Recreation: the Victorian way |url=https://www.marshalls.co.uk/commercial/blog/parks-and-recreation-the-victorian-way |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520184859/https://www.marshalls.co.uk/commercial/blog/parks-and-recreation-the-victorian-way |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=www.marshalls.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>

====Popular culture and mass media====
[[File:Scene from 'Lady of the Lake' (Vitagraph film), 1912.jpg|thumb|Scene from ''Lady of the Lake'' ([[Vitagraph Studios|Vitagraph]] film, 1912)]]

Beginning around the middle of the 19th century, magazines of various types which had previously mainly targeted the few that could afford them found rising popularity among the general public.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of publishing – The 19th century and the start of mass circulation |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613230320/https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing |archive-date=13 June 2015 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> The latter part of the century not only saw rising popularity for magazines targeted specifically at young boys but the development of a relatively new genre aimed at girls.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brotner |first=Kirsten |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2250w7m |title=English Children and Their Magazines, 1751–1945 |date=1988 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-04010-4 |jstor=j.ctt2250w7m |access-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183850/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2250w7m?turn_away=true |archive-date=20 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

A significant milestone was reached in the development of cinema when, in 1895, projected moving images were first shown to a paying audience in Paris. Early films were very short (generally taking the form of newsreels, comedic sketches, and short documentaries). They lacked sound but were accompanied by music, lectures, and a lot of audience participation. A notable film industry had developed by the start of the First World War.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A very short history of cinema |url=https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/very-short-history-of-cinema |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520183852/https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/very-short-history-of-cinema |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=20 May 2021 |website=National Science and Media Museum |language=en}}</ref>