Teenage: The Prehistory of Youth Culture: 1875-1945

by Jon Savage

Overview

In his previous landmark book on youth culture and teen angst, the award-winning England's Dreaming, Jon Savage presented the "definitive history of the English punk movement" (The New York Times). Now, in Teenage, he explores the secret prehistory of a phenomenon we thought we knew, in a monumental work of cultural investigative reporting. Beginning in 1875 and ending in 1945, when the term "teenage" became an integral part of popular culture, Savage draws widely on film, music, literature high and low, fashion, politics, and art and fuses popular culture and social history into a stunning chronicle of modern life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140254150
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/25/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	576
Product dimensions:	5.53(w) x 8.44(h) x 1.27(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jon Savage is a “leading punk expert” (AllMusic) and the author of 1966: The Year The Decade Exploded; England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock; and Teenage: The Creation of Youth, 1875-1945. He is the writer of the award-winning film documentaries The Brian Epstein Story and Joy Division, as well as the feature film Teenage. Savage has written liner notes for Wire, St. Etienne and the Pet Shop Boys, among others, and his compilations include Dreams Come True: Classic Electro 1982-87 (Domino); Meridian 1970 (Heavenly/EMI); and Queer Noises: From the Closet to the Charts, 1961-1976 (Trikont). He is a regular contributor to the Guardian.

Table of Contents

Introduction     xv
1875-1904
Heaven and Hell: Marie Bashkirtseff and Jesse Pomeroy     3
Nationalists and Decadents: The European Counterrevolution     16
Hooligans and Apaches: Juvenile Delinquency and the Mass Media     33
"A Sudden Vision of Heaven": L. Frank Baum and the Dreamland of Oz     49
The American Century: G. Stanley Hall and Adolescence     63
1904-1913
Peter Pan and the Boy Scouts: Imperial British Youth     77
High School Freshmen and Factory Fodder: American Adolescence and Industry     91
Wandervogel and Neo-Pagans: Europe's Back-to-Nature Movements     101
Nickelodeons and Animal Dances: The American Dream Economy     113
1912-1919
Invocation: The European Generation Gap     131
Sacrifice: The War Dead and the Young Against the Old     140
The Class of 1902: Juvenile Delinquency and the Great War     157
Jazz Bands and Doughboys: American Youth Enters Europe     169
1919-1929
Postwar Shocks: The Fascisti, the German Bunde, and the Woodcraft Folk     181
Sheiks and Shebas: The American Youth Market     197
The Cinderella Complex: The Problems of America's Mass Culture     217
The Pursuit of Pleasure: The Bright Young People     234
1930-1939
The Soldiers of anIdea: The Hitler Youth     255
The Children's Army and the New Deal: American Adolescents in the Depression     276
Biff Boys and the Red Menace: The Polarization of British Youth     295
Jitterbugs and Ickies: American Swing and Youth Consumerism     315
1939-1943
Conquerors and Overlords: The Hitler Youth at War and at Home     335
Reluctant Conscripts and Socialist Heroes: British Youth at War     345
Sub-Debs and GIs: American Adolescents in School and in Uniform     360
German Swing Kids and French Zazous: Swing in Nazi Europe     375
Zoot-Suiters and Victory Girls: American Unrest in 1943     391
1942-1945
The Peaceful Invaders: American Soldiers and British Youth     411
Helmuth Hubener, the White Rose, and Anne Frank: Resistance in Nazi Europe     422
The Arrival of the Teenager: The Launch of Seventeen     441
Year Zero: The Teenager Triumphant     454
Acknowledgments     467
Notes     469
Index     525
Illustration Credits     551

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The definitive history of youth in revolt, from the gaslight age to the dawn of rock."
-David Fricke, Rolling Stone

"Compulsive reading . . . Teenage is a rich, rewarding book that makes an important contribution to cultural history."
-Camille Paglia, The New York Times Book Review

"Resonant . . . Savage explores . . . [an] array of teenager types, from the wild, sensational precursors to juvenile delinquency to the straight-laced good-citizen proto- preppie. It's Savage's claim to being a great historian, and it's mighty convincing."
-The Onion

Editorial Reviews

"The definitive history of youth in revolt, from the gaslight age to the dawn of rock."
-David Fricke, Rolling Stone

"Compulsive reading . . . Teenage is a rich, rewarding book that makes an important contribution to cultural history."
-Camille Paglia, The New York Times Book Review

"Resonant . . . Savage explores . . . [an] array of teenager types, from the wild, sensational precursors to juvenile delinquency to the straight-laced good-citizen proto- preppie. It's Savage's claim to being a great historian, and it's mighty convincing."
-The Onion

From the Publisher

Resonant . . . Savage explores . . . [an] array of teenager types, from the wild, sensational precursors to juvenile delinquency to the straight-laced good-citizen proto-preppie. It's Savage's claim to being a great historian, and it's mighty convincing.

The Onion

Compulsive reading . . . Teenage is a rich, rewarding book that makes an important contribution to cultural history.
— The New York Times Book Review

Camille Paglia

The definitive history of youth in revolt, from the gaslight age to the dawn of rock.

Rolling Stone David Fricke