Book excerpt: Explores five centuries of changing attitudes toward children and childhood in the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman attitudes towards children - on the part of adults, religious institutions and the state - from the 15th to the early 20th century are explored in this volume. Specialists in the social history of the Ottoman Empire as a whole, in regions ranging from Anatolia, through the Arab provinces to the Balkans, respond to recent theoretical calls to recognise children as active agents in history. Divided into five thematic sections (concepts of childhood, family interrelationships, children outside family circles, children's bodies, and education) the volume covers the social and political structure of the Ottoman Empire through the innovative prism of children as social agents who are shaped by but also shape society, rather than being the passive recipients of their social environment. Key features -Includes data on Christian, Jewish and Muslim children that shed light on differences and commonalities in family structures and communities -Covers a broad geographic area including Ottoman Romania, Bulgaria, Rumelia, Greece, Bosnia, Syria, Palestine and Istanbul -Paves the way for new directions in research on the history of children and childhood in the Ottoman Empire -Features a Preface by Suraiya Faroqhi, an introductory chapter by Colin Heywood, and includes 8 tables, 8 graphs, 9 illustrations and a glossary of key terms Gülay Yılmaz is Associate Professor at Akdeniz University. She published articles and book chapters on the recruitment process of devşirmes, the janissary involvement on the urban culture, and economy of seventeenth-century Istanbul. Fruma Zachs is Professor at the University of Haifa. She is the author of The Making of a Syrian Identity: Intellectuals and Merchants in 19th-Century Beirut (2005). She published several articles on cultural and social history of the nahda in Greater Syria.