Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture

by Jon Savage

From the author of the critically acclaimed England’s Dreaming, a landmark cultural history of youth

Teenagers —as we have come to define them —were not, award-winning author Jon Savage tells us, born in the 1950s of rockers and Beatniks, when most histories would begin. Rather, the teenager as icon can be traced back to the 1890s, when the foundations for the new century were laid in urban youth culture.

Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture is a monumental cultural history that charts the spread of the American ideal of youth through England and Europe and around the world. From Peter Pan to Oscar Wilde, Anne Frank to the Wizard of Oz, Savage documents youth culture’s development as a commodity and an industry from the turn of the last century to its current driving force in the global economy. Fusing film, music, literature, diaries, fashion, and art, this epic cultural history is an astonishing and surprising chronicle of modern life sure to appeal to pop culture fans, social history buffs, and anyone who has ever been a teenager.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Sociology, Music, Cultural, 21st Century, Anthropology

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Jon Savage (born Jonathan Malcolm Sage) is an English writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his definitive history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, England's Dreaming (1991).

Reviews

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

When an American turns 21, it's supposed to be a big deal. Finally we've fully graduated from childhood, finally we can spend all of our spare cash on liquor... legally, finally we're liberated from the tight grasp of our parents. 21 is the final threshold, the official end of youth.

I wasn't terribly excited to turn 21, and when it happened, I yawned, answered a few phone calls, went to class, had a drink with my roommate, and went to sleep relatively content. On your 21st birthday, you're supposed to be excited for the future, but I wasn't. I could've lived it up, but Trump's victory just a week earlier had dampened my spirits and the outlook of an entire generation. Celebrating still didn't seem right. On November 8th we had watched a nightmare unfold in real time. The mood refused to lighten no matter how much we told jokes to calm ourselves down or drowned ourselves in wine. Trump didn't want us, and we didn't want him.

In Jon Savage's Teenage, young people are the future, the path towards utopia, the consumers and drivers of a perfect capitalist or communist future. Adults fought to harness youth for their own economic, political, and cultural dreams, and youth fought back, seeking to define themselves. Even though adults and youth constantly fought from 1875 to 1945 (to today), there was a clear agreement that young people were the future, the means through which a resplendent era would be created. While communists, Nazis, capitalists, concerned parents, and youth gangs had little in common, they all looked forward.

But it seems like the past has won for now. Youth are no longer the future, but an impediment to the new American régime's path to ultimate power. We will be precariously employed, bound to the gig economy and its promise of low wages, zero job security, and limited benefits. The majority of us have been failed by a foundering education system. The government and the economy are unprepared for the acceleration of automation, the impending threat of climate chaos, stock market collapse, and increasing structural unemployment. If the youth of the past that Savage so impressively details had something in common, it was employment and a forward outlook. We don't have that luxury.

It feels eerie to be 21 today. Young people have no idea what will happen next, be it nuclear war, isolationism, or climate catastrophe. But if one thing is for sure, young people are fed up. If late capitalism continues on its death spiral, massive youth discontent will most likely play a role in a new wave of global revolutions, for better or for worse. Ignoring the pleas of young people today, while likely, could lead to a crisis of legitimacy that no government can afford.

But enough of all this doom and gloom. While I read Teenage, I participated in a wonderful seminar on the history of youth cultures taught by a former radical vegan, left-wing, German punk rocker, a caricature of himself and a brilliant man. His and my classmates' wit and passion have inspired me to hold on to hope at the start of this uncertain era. Some will always continue to fight..

If I learned anything from my professor and if there's anything you'll learn from Savage's illuminating work, it's that youth have cultural, economic, and political power. How they use it has and will continue to shape our histories.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is impossible to imagine anyone tackling this subject with the verve, insight and ability to hold one's interest over nearly 600 pages, over a hundred years and diverse countries political regimes except by John Savage the author of the seminal 'England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond' (and how bizarre, for those of us who were young in those Punk days,even if we never were Punks, to realise that the world that gave birth to punk is more lost then that of Dickens's or Austen's ).

Because I am way over sixty I grew up in a world which, odd as it sounds now, actually placed an inordinate importance on 'the young'. They were seen as the future and were the centre of speculation, comment, theorizing and experimentation. Looking back it is bizarre, in many cases frightening, but from today's perspective also admirable that there was a time, not long ago, when adults looked at the young not in jealousy or fear, but with concern because they were the future.

In all its complications and varied meanings John Savage examines brilliantly the rise of 'youth' as both object of adult and government concern and as the producers themselves of their own unique identity and culture.

This makes it long and fearfully diverse, but it is a story at the heart of so much history from the 19th century to the outbreak of WWII. That he doesn't cover the post WWII years is significant because although that was the period that 'teenagers' were supposedly discovered it was actually the beginning of their decline because no matter what they or anyone else thought, teenagers were in the process of disappearing and becoming what they are today, consumers. That is a very different phenomena to what the Wandervogel, Scouts, Pioneers, Swing-Kids, Skol members, or depression era child hobos represented.

I can't praise to much the rich variety of ideas and insights this history provides - one of the most important insights is to be reminded of how early grown responsibility in terms of work or bearing arms or simply be left to fend for yourself was accepted as natural. We hear of 'boy' soldiers and think of kief crazed adolescents in Africa while forgetting that 16 year olds were serving on UK Royal Navy ships in WWII and 13 year olds working in shipyards in Liverpool, and elsewhere in the 1920s and 30s. The young were important because they were a resource and although they were legally 'minors' that was a hugely different concept today's version of 'children'. It defined their lack of power rather than defining any type of protection.

A book that deserves to be widely read.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wavered between three and four stars on this book. On the one hand, there was a lot of fascinating facts, but on the other hand, it was interspersed with some very dull sections. Even though I learned a lot, it bugged me that Savage at times held up examples of the minority and then applied their actions with sweeping generalization to all adolescents. He even says in his introduction, "It may be argued that I have concentrated too much on the extraordinary rather than the ordinary, the extreme at the expense of the routine." Um, yes. I DO argue that! I also wearied of hearing about how every decade the teens were at odds with their parents, that there was this huge generation gap, that morals were disintegrating, the adults had somehow failed the youth, etc., etc. The book was honestly a bit of a downer focusing on these type of things for FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE PAGES! Savage never mentioned, "Hey, this was just like the previous decade when kids and adults didn't get along!", but always made it seem like it was a new and terrible thing that was happening. It did put the England riots of August of last year in perspective. Riots like that are nothing new. Teens rebel. Kids and parents are going to have a generation gap. We don't need to get our knickers in a twist because history just repeats itself over and over again. I did learn so much though which made this book (and the late fee the library will charge me when I finally return it) worth it. It also made me incredibly grateful to my teens who though far from perfect, are fairly obedient and loving.

[Channing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jon Savage went to Cambridge, but instead of doing what Cambridge grads normally do, he started writing reviews of punk shows for "Sounds" magazine, moved to Manchester where he befriended a new band called Joy Division and a scruffy young folk guitarist named Johnny Marr, and ultimately stumbled into becoming one of the finest Anglo-American pop culture commentators of the late 20th century. His book on punk, England's Dreaming, is THE definitive work on the genre and its origins.

Teenage takes things back a few steps further and explores the development of modern youth culture in Europe and America between 1875 and 1945. Well-researched and deftly written.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of the creation of the "teenager" from the late 1800s through the mid-1940s. Savage writes about a variety of youth movements from the Bright Young People to swing kids to Hitler Youth. He also examines how individuals such as Rimbaud or Leopold & Loeb or Anne Frank are representative or considered outliers for their generations. A very interesting way to encouter US and European history during this era.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jon Savage (once again) did another amazing book. His book on British punk is essential, but this one - the history of the 'Teenager." And it is so hardcore that it stops in the 1950's, where most thinks the Teenage became 'teenage.' A remarkable history and the parts about the Hitler Youth is fascinating as well as disturbing. Savage is great.

[Daniel Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty dense historical exploration of the concept of teenagers in the US, Britain, France, and Germany from the turn of the 20th century through the end of World War 2. I learned a lot from this book but for me the tone was too academic to really enjoy, reading almost like a text book.

[Karen]

David Bowie’s Formative Reading List of 75 Favorite Books
#4

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jon Savage's history of teenage from the 1860's or so thru the mid-1900's. Couldn't finish it...just didn't have the gumption. Savage can be & is a great writer but I wasn't interested enough in what this book has to offer. Disappointed. A bit too much sociology for me & not enough story telling.

[Austin Gustin-Helms · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressively researched and thoughtful account of how “the teenager” came to exist—not just as an age group, but as an identity, a market, and a cultural force. Jon Savage traces youth through war, subculture, rebellion, and reinvention, showing how adolescence was shaped by more than hormones: it was constructed through politics, fear, and media. While it’s a slow read in places, it’s far more accessible than most academic histories. It’s easy to see why Bowie included this on his bookshelf—understanding the roots of teenage identity is key to understanding pop itself.

[Dave Giles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A behemoth of a book. Not entirely what I expected when I downloaded it. The history and origin of the teenager from late 18th Century to 1945. It's a very sociological look at how "Teenagers" emerged looking at UK/US/Germany/France and the reaction to social norms of the ages (empires, religion, cod philosophy and theories) mass urbanisation, industrialisation, wars, early youth "cults" and urban gangs, jazz, swing, The Boy Scouts, Hitler Youth, advertising, disposable income of women in war time workplace, GIs being seen as something exotic, cinema and Frank Sinatra.

[Aitziber · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, as you might've guessed by my started and finished dates (no less than 2 and a half years in between!), this book took me some effort to get through. I'm not sure what it was, if the translation, or the pace of the book, or something else, but I have been stuck with it for quite a while. At this point, I don't even remember what the earliest sections of the book were about, what I thought of them or how they made me feel. This is a pity, as I write these reviews so that I can come back later and have a good idea of what a book gave to me.

It might've been the translation, as I think the language in the original might've been more fresh, easier to get through, more in tune with the language of its young subjects. I have found Spanish translations of non fiction books to be a slog, overly explanatory, really formal and clinical even when the subject is something like youth culture.

But the pace certainly didn't help, with major sections of the book covering two, four years... Ten at most. The first section covers 29 years, and this is only because there weren't really many youth voices from that era, not that much stuff marketed to what were then just young people.

So I would say the thesis of the book is that, particularly in the period between 1918 to 1945, several Western countries took notice of an emerging demographic, that of the titular teenager. This happened for a couple of reasons. One was that child labor laws meant that the entrance to adulthood was pushed back several years. Another was the lack of jobs during the Great Depression, which again resulted in governments encouraging young people not to work, so that veterans, skilled workers and people with families had access to the little available jobs there were. Secondary education thus became compulsory. There was a concerted effort to keep teenagers in school as long as possible. Meanwhile, clothing and beauty brands began marketing products to teenagers in the upper classes, then called sub-debs, i.e. not quite of debutante age yet.

In Europe, Germany absorbed all of its youth into the Hitler Youth, which replaced the existing Wandervogel and Bunde. The young people of Europe also enjoyed a music genre that originated in the US and was already tremendously popular there: jazz, hot jazz, swing. In fact, for all the time that the book spends on them, jazz and swing might very well be the wizards that turned all these "adolescent Pinocchios" into "teens". Jazz and swing were popular in the UK, France and even Nazi Germany.

In the end, and because the US emerged from WWII a global power, they successfully exported a figure that only received a name in the last year of the war: the teenager. That's not to say the US invented this age group, of course. They merely showed the world how to contain their youthful energy and thirst for independence in the most profitable, subduing way. Give them a job they can combine with school, so they have spending money, or simply give them an allowance. Make them feel as if they're being heard, even if their voices have no influence in government policy. And finally, sell as much cheap stuff to them as they can conceivably buy. Sell them magazines, candy, soft drinks, cigarettes (not this anymore) and clothes. Sell them a matinee idol and a pin up girl. Exploit their need to fit in and their nascent need for romance, bury them in dating advice. In the end, that's what "teenager" is: a term for a demographic that was created in the US for marketability purposes.

[Dar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am glad I read this but I really had to persevere. It was written in a somewhat scholarly manner with lots of sources and footnotes; not my usual recreational reading. Assuming it was written as a "popular" social history, it made for dense reading. Here's an example:

Within America, the simultaneous commercial exploitation and attempted control of youth gave rise to a paradox. The deep-mining of the psyche encouraged by advertisers began to throw up those very atavistic qualities that they were attempting to channel through the creation of a society based around the accumulation of objects and comforts. Social control through consumerism might have been more benign than through totalitarian methods, but it set up different kinds of distortions that were increasingly enacted in the deep oscillation between hedonism and puritanism.

The author is known for his book England's Dreaming, a history of UK punk. We have that book in the house so I started reading it to see if it was also hard going, but it wasn't.

The social movements centred around young men, but the author took pains to include an example from the life of a of young woman, where possible. I wondered how the same content would have been presented if written by a woman. I was also surprised by the continued use of the word Negroes throughout the book - which was published in 2007. Just because that term was in use between 1870 and 1945 doesn't mean it is appropriate now when describing people of African or African American descent.

The story increasingly grabbed my interest though. It traces the rise of youth cultures from the 1870s to 1945, with fascinating chapters on street gangs, Scouting, fans of jazz and swing, the Roaring 20s, the Depression, and a lengthy section on the rise of Hitler Youth and the effects of war. It compared and contrasted youth in the UK, Germany, France and the US. I learned a lot about the popular and political history of each decade. The book concludes with moving accounts of the life and death of Anne Frank and the end of WW2, along with a glimpse of the coming consumer culture.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't really sure what to expect with this one. I figured it'd probably have an annoying amount of pop culture trivia and nostalgic narratives but hoped it'd also get into things like legitimate rebellion against authority versus rebelling just because it's fun, examples of youth groups being hijacked or surreptitiously created by business interests, constant change keeping generations from interacting with each other, kids rejecting everything about their parents' lifestyles instead of just the worst aspects, etc. He does touch on a lot of these things as well as things like the role sports have played in wiring our brains for nationalism and the perpetual hypocrisies of the older generations towards their kids and the scapegoating of both young and old that occurs when society runs into problems. Unfortunately, his complete focus on the subject of adolescence led to an oversimplified analysis of things like the causes of wars and political issues. What he says about the bombing of Hiroshima was particularly irritating. I also think this would have benefitted from more ideas about the treatment of youth in non-western cultures and in both earlier and later time periods (it mainly focuses only on the late 1800's to 1945), especially considering how thick this book is. I didn't hate it though.

[Mickey McIntosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we think of teenagers, we think of the postwar era. Jon Savage however suggests the teenage youth culture goes further back. Starting from the mid 1870s to the end of World War II, this book takes a look at teenage culture and how their surroundings affected them. American, British, French and German teenagers are profiled as they asbord the worlds of fashion, lifestyle, music, movies and society in general, and how it shaped them, and how they interacted with the environment around them. A great read for anyone who is into, history, society and cultural issues.

[Allison Thurman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good introductory history of youth, youth culture, and how adults reacted to them before there was a designated demographic of "teenager" (i.e. pre-1950s). Especially interesting were the chapters about youth in the immediate aftermath of WWI, particularly in Europe - the flappers and bright young things partied so hard in an effort to forget. Not as readable as a novel but certainly not dry academic reading either - recommended.

[Yupa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preistoria dell'adolescenza

Una cavalcata lunga settant'anni, dal 1875 al 1945, settant'anni di storia in cui i più giovani, in quell'intercapedine a grandezza variabile schiacciata tra infanzia ed età matura, hanno via via acquisito sempre più spazio nell'immaginario comune, nelle ansie e nelle aspirazioni degli adulti, in un rapporto dialettico tra diritti e controllo.
Il libro ne traccia con gran passione evoluzioni e le trasformazioni di questa cosa chiamata adolescenza, i progressi e gli arretramenti, con dati e documenti, con storie esemplari e idee di opinionisti e studiosi, all'interno di opere letterarie più celebri e meno celebri.
Abbiamo così quelle che oggi verrebbero chiamate "baby gang", già attive come e più di oggi nei vicoli della città in rapida espansione di fine Ottocento; e poi le organizzazioni giovanili di massa come i boy scout, integrate e funzionali alla società, e altri raggruppamenti più marginali e ribelli, che da quella società cercavano una fuga; quindi le trincee della Prima Guerra Mondiale, trasformate nelle tombe di centinaia di migliaia di ragazzi, mentre nelle città erano le ragazze, proprio grazie al conflitto, a scoprire insospettati spazî di autonomia e libertà; poi seguiamo ragazzi e ragazze che si dimenano nelle sale da ballo con ritmi sempre più nuovi che scandalizzano i benpensati, e che impazziscono, stregati, per i divi del cinema e della musica; e ancora, le masse dei giovani cooptati dai movimenti politici che in Europa hanno funestato la prima parte del Novecento, il fascismo, il nazismo e il comunismo sovietico, mentre negli Stati Uniti, in un movimento completamente opposto, gli stessi giovani venivano blanditi dalla sempre più inarrestabile macchina del consumismo e dell'economia di mercato.
E in mezzo a tutto questo, di tanto in tanto, gli eclatanti fatti di sangue, quegli scoppî di violenza che a cicli ricorrenti spingono gli adulti a torcersi le mani e trarre le loro conclusioni tanto generalizzanti quanto ovviamente superficiali su ragazzi fuori controllo e bisognosi di disciplina, e la perenne paura, sempre più intensa e sintomatica man mano che di fatto l'adolescenza si prolunga e altrettanto l'infanzia, che i ragazzi crescano "troppo in fretta", cioè desiderino semplicemente sperimentare la propria autonomia incipiente.
Se c'è quindi una cosa che insegna il libro, con le sue oltre ricche cinquecento pagine, è che tante cose della storia dell'adolescenza, quella a noi contemporanea, si limita a replicare molto di ciò che è avvenuto nella sua preistoria, quella che parte da fine Ottocento; e che tanto di ciò che, sui giovani, viene presentato come fenomeno nuovo, inedito e soprattutto emergenziale (la violenza, il degrado, la sessualità "precoce", la mancanza di valori), non è che l'ennesima riproposizione di un copione già noto e stravecchio, ma pronto per essere puntualmente dimenticato, il tutto in un tentativo di irreggimentare le coorti dei più giovani che, puntualmente e, oserei dire, giustamente, faranno sempre di tutto per scrollarsi di dosso quei gioghi e vivere, che sia per mera ricerca del piacere o per una consapevole aspirazione di autonomia, la propria individualità.

[Keith Barger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book years ago and only now read it. It is a bit imposingly thick and dense in text, but despite this is quite readable once it is wholly engaged. I read it as I began preparing material for a 20th Century class following the IGCSE curriculum. I reasoned that my high school students will be teenagers taking this class, so even a few gems gleaned from this book may make the material more relatable to my students.

It begins just prior to the 20th Century and ends just after the Second World War. It traces the origins of the development of the idea of "teenage" an age that is neither childhood nor adulthood. As people have always lived from the ages of 13-19, it may seem almost absurd to imagine a world without teenagers, but while people did pass through those ages, they weren't viewed as teenagers even by themselves until very recently. The defining of and response to youth culture was necessary due to the breakup of the family as an economic order due to the industrial revolution. With workers pursuing work into urban centers and traditional social support structures torn asunder, young people were confronted by a material world that put a price tag on everything.

I recommend this book to people who work with young people to better understand what forces created the world we live in today.

[La Central · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Más de diez años hemos tenido que esperar para la traducción de este maravilloso libro de Jon Savage, el historiador del punk y las subculturas juveniles. Y la espera ha valido la pena.

Vivimos en una sociedad que idolatra a los adolescentes, y es por eso que resulta especialmente fascinante desentrañar los inicios del mito.

La adolescencia es un estado definido por primera vez en 1904 por el psicólogo G. Stanley Hall. Entre 1875 y 1945 cada uno de los temas que asociamos con la adolescencia tiene un vívido y volátil precedente, que Savage nos muestra con ejemplos en Gran Bretaña, Estados Unidos, Francia y Alemania. El autor escribe así una prehistoria panorámica de los adolescentes y de los intentos de sus mayores por controlarlos o explotarlos.

Las simpatías del libro se encuentran siempre del lado de los adolescentes menos obedientes, protagonistas de los mejores episodios. Es por eso, quizás, por lo que el autor llega a la conclusión de que el triunfo de la cultura juvenil después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial posee una ambivalencia interesante como fenómeno conformista y capitalista.
Para completar la lectura, os recomendamos el documental del mismo nombre que hizo Matt Wolf junto con el autor, una delicia." Mireya Valencia

[Lindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite thing I learned from this book is that, outside the funeral home where the funerals of Bonnie & Clyde were ongoing, the funeral home owner dissipated the crowd of unruly fans by spraying embalming fluid at them.

Compressing the years 1875-1945 into 465 pages and focusing on England, the US, and Germany, Jon Savage sketches in broad strokes what he terms "the prehistory of the teenager," arguing against the idea that youth culture is a strictly post-World War II phenomenon. Savage is a fairly lively writer and has a good eye for detail, both of which count for a lot as far as readability goes.

While Savage is concerned with the dynamics of social power that lead to the construction of "teenagers" as a social class, there is is little analysis afforded to the tensions within that class, how how the category of "teenage" itself is de facto exclusive. The lives of African-American girls, for example, are completely absent from this book's narrative, and I don't think this problem with the book is even close to being a blip on the author's radar.

So my verdict is: Teenage is pretty standard.

[Andrea Janov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of my anthropology minor in college. I love diving deep into cultural histories, and this was better than I imagined. It covers a huge swath of time as well as many countries an cultures. There was a clear lens of World War II looming over the whole book, but it was still far more comprehensive than I originally assumed it would be. I learned a lot of context that was not taught in schools, the cultural norms of the times that give texture to the events of history, and even challenge our assumptions.

My only complaint is that it stopped and there has not been a follow up volume.

[Allan Azulbotón · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinario libro de referencia sobre la gestación y el desarrollo de la cultura adolescente y juvenil desde mediados del siglo diecinueve hasta su consolidación en una poderosa fuerza social y adquisitiva después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Luego de leerlo es imposible no revaluar algunos aspectos de las (sub)culturas juveniles posteriores. Inevitable también no colocarlo en la estantería de imprescindibles.

[Trevor Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book, that's finishing point is 1945, the birth of teenagers as we think of them today. The story of the White Rose movement in nazi Germany, something I wasn't aware of, is gut wrenching. Jon Savage is one of my favourite writers and this is a top, top book.

[Jennifer Royan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Savage is a tight, clever writer. The transformation of youths into teenage is fascinating and for lack of a better word, horrifying.

Armed with objectivity, one can see what they needed and were almost certainly never given - space to grow up away from commercialism and fine their selves.

[Nick Huntington-Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talk about thorough! A fascinating look at a wide range of social changes that I'd imagine most people know on a surface level but never thought too much about.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenalality murks and reigns. When demographical significance creates beauty.

[Martin Raybould · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly researched and elegantly written book about youth culture before it was a thing.

[Chahula · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even with this book. How can someone take the topic of teenagers and make it boring af??

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, I guess? But so dry.

[Regulus · Rating 5 out of 5]

автор немного устал к концу, и есть некоторые вопросы к корректору русского издания - но в целом отличная книга. больше про попытки молодёжной политики, чем молодёжь как субкультуру, но читать стоит.