Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades: A Reference Guide

by Rollin, Lucy

• ISBN13: 9780313302237
• ISBN10: 0313302235
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-30
• Publisher: Greenwood Pub Group

Summary

Decade by decade, this resource offers an overview of all aspects of American teenagers' lives from 1900 to 1999, as they evolved through the century. Using a variety of sources from sociological studies to popular magazines, this work shows how teens have responded to the political events that have characterized each decade. It also describes the patterns that have affected their home, work, and school lives, patterns of dating and sex, trends in alcohol and drug use, and teen tastes in books and movies and use of slang and fashions. Seventy illustrations make the personalities, interests, and media of each decade come alive for students of history, literature, and popular culture. Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades chronicles the evolution of teenagers through the bobby-soxers of the 1940s, beatniks of the 1950s, and hippies of the 1960s, to the independent and outspoken teens of the 1990s. With photographs of teens, anecdotal information, and statistics, Rollin pulls together sources on fashion, slang, film, radio, and music. She confirms the great impact that rock music has had on teen life since the late 1940s as it traces the evolution of favorite performers and styles. She summarizes the patterns of youth freedoms and adult fears that resulted in such public efforts as the Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency in the 1950s and the attempts to label rock concerts as dangerous in the 1990s. She also demonstrates that the teen violence that seems to characterize the 1990s is not new. Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades is a must for answering the question of how teens lived during each decade and how each decade has influenced teens' lives today.

Author Biography

LUCY ROLLIN teaches Children's and Adolescent Literature at Clemson University.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
The Early Decades, 1900--1920	1	(32)
The 1920s	33	(34)
The 1930s	67	(36)
The 1940s	103	(44)
The 1950s	147	(50)
The 1960s	197	(44)
The 1970s	241	(30)
The 1980s	271	(38)
The 1990s	309	(52)
A Note on Statistics	361	(2)
A note on Sources	363	(4)
Appendix: A Sample of Teen-Oriented Links to the World Wide Web	367	(4)
Index	371