Changing View of Children. Historians used to think that before the eighteenth century, people were harsh or indifferent toward their children and did not regard childhood as a separate stage of life. These views were derived largely from child-raising manuals that advocated strict discipline and warned against coddling or showing too much affection, and portraits of children that showed them dressed as little adults. This bleak view has been altered as people have studied sources that give information about the way children were actually treated rather than the way they were supposed to be treated; they have discovered that many parents showed great affection for their children and were very disturbed when they died young. Such sentiments can be seen easily in a letter from the wealthy Florentine woman Alessandra Strozzi to her son Filippo Strozzi in 1459. Parents tried to protect their children...