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Teenagers: An American History
Nobody worried about “teenagers” prior to the 1940s. In fact, as a culturally or economically defined entity they did not exist. But in the 50 years since the last world war, when the term was first coined, teenagers have had an enormous impact on American culture. They have reshaped our language, our music, our clothes. They have changed forever the way we respond to authority. They have become a $200 billion consumer group avidly courted by marketers. And they have changed our culture, which will never again treat their demographic group merely as young adults.Teenagers ranges widely across American culture of the middle twentieth century to depict the shifting characterizations of teens from invisible young adults to young soldiers in training, to bobby soxers and zoot suiters, to rock ’n’ rollers and juvenile delinquents, from hippies to savvy consumers. Grace Palladino examines everything from Andy Hardy and Elvis Presley to Seventeen magazine and MTV. She challenges those who decry teenage hedonism and immorality today, showing that modern disaffected teenagers, as in the past, are responding just as much to hypocritical adult behavior as to a commercial cult of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 16, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 15, 2022
About as good as you could expect a secular historian to write about the subject. The goal in the writing style here is to accurately represent the sentiments of teenagers as the category develops over the course of the 20th century. Research is extensive and the book breezes by. Sources are taken from teenagers as they respond to various cultural shifts and events, and you also get a clear understanding of what “adults” were thinking at each step. You see the inevitable decline as "adults" start out thinking they can influence this new demographic toward a certain respectability, only to find that it has not worked, and the process repeats again, only with even less moral strictness.
The creation of the teenager might be the most significant aspect of what defines modern culture. The ingredients required for the formation of a teenager are:
1. affluence
2. lack of consequences
3. hypocrisy of authority
Although #’s 2 and 3 can occur in any time or place, what really enabled the formation of the modern teenager as a political force/marketing demographic was the unprecedented success of Western civilization, especially American civilization, after WWII.
The book reveals without ever really saying it that there never was such a thing as a "teenager" - only a certain way of thinking. What’s weird, fascinating, and often horrifying about the teenager is that he/she is paradoxically extremely childish and extremely world-weary. The teenage age is ostensibly a period when a person is in their “teens,” but the truth that is made evident upon examination is that being a teenager, being defined wholly around the characteristics of rebellion against authority, sarcasm, and pursuit of self-fulfillment, is really a mindset that can exist in anyone. It’s not that decadence didn’t exist in the past - it’s rather that decadence has become more affordable in the West.
The temptation to think like a teenager is constant in the modern world. It starts at birth, and it recurs at every point that it once again looks “affordable” until death.
Thomas Gray wrote about the poor in the 18th century, wondering about what was lost when “Chill penury reppress’d their noble rage / And froze the genial current of the soul.” He might have been disappointed to find out. The chief marks of modern adolescence are really more akin to addictions than genuinely noble qualities. But of course, Gray was not merely talking about the materially poor. He was hinting at the value of man when he is poor in spirit - which is an entirely different kind of poverty, rare even in his day.
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More thoughts because I only explored half of what the book describes:
- The story of the rise of the teenage demographic is also the story of their exploitation. The "adult" world, in coddling the less mature with advertisements, took advantage of them. In other words, it is not accurate to say that the teenager is merely the product of his own faults. The teenager is a result of neglect. As Proverbs states: "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." So, the degradation of the culture that is seen in the modern adolescent is a result of the adults who, in their pride and spoils of battle, made pets out of their own children.
- The Civil rights movement and what was good in the Anti-war movement were exceptions to the rule. They are in fact counterexamples of what teenagers are capable of when they actually are brought up in discipline and love without hypocrisy - i.e., as adults.
The creation of the teenager might be the most significant aspect of what defines modern culture. The ingredients required for the formation of a teenager are:
1. affluence
2. lack of consequences
3. hypocrisy of authority
Although #’s 2 and 3 can occur in any time or place, what really enabled the formation of the modern teenager as a political force/marketing demographic was the unprecedented success of Western civilization, especially American civilization, after WWII.
The book reveals without ever really saying it that there never was such a thing as a "teenager" - only a certain way of thinking. What’s weird, fascinating, and often horrifying about the teenager is that he/she is paradoxically extremely childish and extremely world-weary. The teenage age is ostensibly a period when a person is in their “teens,” but the truth that is made evident upon examination is that being a teenager, being defined wholly around the characteristics of rebellion against authority, sarcasm, and pursuit of self-fulfillment, is really a mindset that can exist in anyone. It’s not that decadence didn’t exist in the past - it’s rather that decadence has become more affordable in the West.
The temptation to think like a teenager is constant in the modern world. It starts at birth, and it recurs at every point that it once again looks “affordable” until death.
Thomas Gray wrote about the poor in the 18th century, wondering about what was lost when “Chill penury reppress’d their noble rage / And froze the genial current of the soul.” He might have been disappointed to find out. The chief marks of modern adolescence are really more akin to addictions than genuinely noble qualities. But of course, Gray was not merely talking about the materially poor. He was hinting at the value of man when he is poor in spirit - which is an entirely different kind of poverty, rare even in his day.
------
More thoughts because I only explored half of what the book describes:
- The story of the rise of the teenage demographic is also the story of their exploitation. The "adult" world, in coddling the less mature with advertisements, took advantage of them. In other words, it is not accurate to say that the teenager is merely the product of his own faults. The teenager is a result of neglect. As Proverbs states: "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." So, the degradation of the culture that is seen in the modern adolescent is a result of the adults who, in their pride and spoils of battle, made pets out of their own children.
- The Civil rights movement and what was good in the Anti-war movement were exceptions to the rule. They are in fact counterexamples of what teenagers are capable of when they actually are brought up in discipline and love without hypocrisy - i.e., as adults.
October 10, 2024
Only read the first half (relevant part to my thesis) but I'd like to finish it if I ever have time
November 16, 2024
Like Thomas Hine's "Rise and Fall of the American Teenager" this book sees the creation of teenagers as a separate demographic as dependent on high school, which gave everyone in that age bracket a common experience or a vision of one (for poor kids or kids of color, a good high school with challenging academics might be out of reach). And that experience was from the first rebellious and not adult-approved, whether it was swing music, drinking and smoking, heavy petting, pot, rock-and-roll or student protest.
I've read enough counter-arguments to wonder if Palladino doesn't place too much emphasis on sex, drugs and rock-and-roll — as she points out, plenty of kids did conform to a larger extent and there's relatively little about sports (which was huge at a lot of high schools and I imagine still is). Overall, though, very good.
I've read enough counter-arguments to wonder if Palladino doesn't place too much emphasis on sex, drugs and rock-and-roll — as she points out, plenty of kids did conform to a larger extent and there's relatively little about sports (which was huge at a lot of high schools and I imagine still is). Overall, though, very good.
September 25, 2020
A pretty good an enlightening early history of “teenagers” from 1900-60s. It focuses a bit too much on pop culture and music trends (epiphenomena), and too little on the underlying economic and political changes that led to these realities.
Knocked down a whole star for the awful, reactionary conclusion that seems at odds with the good history present in the rest of the book. I don’t know how, after seeing the development of teenagers in the 20th century, you’d conclude that kids these days have it too good and complain too much.
Knocked down a whole star for the awful, reactionary conclusion that seems at odds with the good history present in the rest of the book. I don’t know how, after seeing the development of teenagers in the 20th century, you’d conclude that kids these days have it too good and complain too much.
December 12, 2015
A history that starts with the Depression as 13-19 year olds (no one called them teenagers then) are freed from the traditional burden of getting a job to help the family because there are no jobs. It continues to the 1970’s at which point teenagers have fully achieved a kind of self-determination as far as culture and identity is concerned. The economy plays an important role throughout, not just tough times, but prosperity, which is a prerequisite to cars and clothes and records. The author also documents the role of music. There’s Benny Goodman teens and Elvis Presley teens and Beatles teens. The adult world seemed to resist the development of teen culture every step of the way with one exception, marketers, for whom sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll made a sort of cha ching sound. This is a lively, interesting and altogether readable history. Having lived through a part of this period, I also found it rings true more often than not.
January 4, 2017
I picked up this book thinking I'd get a better grasp on why some of today's teenagers act the way they do, in hopes I might be able to relate to them more. I'm not sure I got all of that from it, but it's probably because this was published in 1996. Still, the main concepts apply, and have helped me realize how much things stay the same even as they change. Palladino inspects the multifaceted lives of teenagers and in the process enables the reader to empathize with them, even if you are unable to completely understand the ever-evolving youth culture.
February 8, 2014
I wish a new chapter was added at the end of the book. The jump from the 60s to the 90s leaves quite a lot of stuff out, and the last chapter reads like a draft. Other than that, brilliant and entertaining read.
March 13, 2012
Written by a Mt. Holyoke graduate! A fascinating and compelling book on the history of the American teenager.
February 5, 2017
Read this for my course on Youth and Society. It was all right, very easy to absorb and read quickly but the content was not as gripping as some of the other literature for the class.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews