Teenage: The Creation Of Youth By Jon Savage

The Independent reviews an interesting book on the roots of the teenager. Teenage: The Creation Of Youth’ is written by Jon Savage and tracks the rise of the teenager between 1875-1945. The Indie says:

In Teenage, however, Jon Savage tells a story far more fascinating for not having been dulled by repetition. There was indeed teenage life before the rock’n'roll era. By ending his tale at the climax of the Second World War, before the myths of ancient grease kick in, he not only avoids a further muddying of well-trodden ground, but enables us to view the the first half of the last century (and the last quarter of the one before that) through fresh eyes. Well-documented events – the two world wars, the Depression, the rise and fall of Hitlerism and many more – are seen from the perspective of their effect on the youth of Britain, America and continental Europe.

…in every nation, they were subjected to intense and systematic pressure to ensure their docility and tractibility; to indoctrinate them into prevailing values and, most brutally, to enlist young males as cannon-fodder. Adolescents were considered a potential danger to themselves and to wider society.

A psychologist writing in 1944, tackling the perennial phenomenon of juvenile delinquency, compared teenagers to psychopaths: his book, Rebel Without a Cause, later provided the basis for James Dean’s movie. The term “teenager” came into being just two years earlier, coined by the sociologist Talcott Parsons and coinciding in America with the launch of Seventeen magazine – the first publication to address teenage girls as a group – and the coronation of Frank Sinatra as the first real teenage idol. Entertainers before had appealed to adolescents, ranging from Rudolf Valentino to Benny Goodman, but Sinatra was the first to vie specifically for their approval.

Independent Review
Teenager On Amazon