Children of Wrath: Possession, Prophecy and the Young in Early Modern England. French, Anna. Farnham: Ashgate, 2015. viii + 181 pp. $199.95. ISBN 978-1-4724-4367-0. REVIEWED BY: Brendan Walsh University of Queensland, Australia Anna French’s Children of Wrath is one of the most recent studies addressing the often problematic scholarship surrounding childhood in early modern England. Academics have always faced difficulties in reconstructing the lives of children in this period, limited by a lack of viable source material. Perceptions of early modern childhood have thus been framed around the interactions of this demographic with other historical actors, skewing the scholarship towards a particular focus. The relevant historiography has primarily been concerned with how parents and early modern society as a whole regarded their young—the notion of ‘emotional immunity’ having gained significant traction. This theory posited that the high mortality rates for children stripped them of any sense of authority while also straining bonds of parental love. The study of early modern childhood as presented in Children of Wrath is somewhat revisionist in approach, joining a series of contemporary works that also attempt to provide an alternative perspective to the historiographical orthodoxy. In this instance, French shifts away from the anthropological inspired approach that has characterised childhood studies over the past fifty years, and examines early modern culture in its own context rather than attempting to draw a linear progression from medieval to modern. French’s objective in this study is to reveal how early modern society perceived, imagined, and depicted their young; revising the scholarly notion that their lives may have gone unregarded. In Children of Wrath, French acknowledges the challenges associated with studying childhood in this period and looks to examples of extreme religious experiences as a means of framing her analysis. Primary depictions of demonic possession, prophecy, and divine providence emerge as rich sources for understanding the role and status of children in this context. These examples may appear problematic but, as French argues convincingly, they reveal unique cases in which children were granted cultural or spiritual agency. Each of the chapters in Children of Wrath explores cultural spaces in which children were depicted as reaching beyond their assigned societal roles. In particular, French underlines her research by emphasising changing attitudes towards children that developed during and after the Protestant Reformation. In a period where the old forms of social control had been lost, French asserts that the children depicted in the related source material were the products of cultural and religious adaptation in which early modern society turned to the past and drew on old symbols and tropes. These children seemed to reflect the spiritual anxiety of the period: functioning as martyrs or as eschatological symbols of the ever-deepening sin plaguing the earthly realm. The perception of children in this period was thus shaped by changing religious attitudes, providing them with an important role in this shifting cultural landscape. The most substantial sections of Children of Wrath focuses on accounts of demonic possession. Early modern society perceived children as particularly vulnerable to spiritual experiences, demonic possession thus emerging as symbolic of the wider battle between God and the Devil. These culturally recognised discourses were important as they provided children with a role to play in the religious performance that epitomised cases of demonic possession. Through adopting this role, children could gain a sense of spiritual authority and