A direct, droll, but disturbing social history of American
teenagers and their value in the marketplace. Palladino, coeditor
of the Samuel Gompers Papers at the University of Maryland and
author of Another Civil War (not reviewed), traces the rise of the
youth culture in 20th century America. The notion of teens as
members of an independent group with their own interests is
relatively recent. At the end of WW II, Palladino contends, a
transformation took place in American family life. Until then
adolescents had been considered children whose role was to prepare
for the future and contribute to the family income. Instead, they
gradually became "teenagers" with a "voice and vote in family
affairs." In addition, these teens came to expect a private social
life. No longer taboo, interaction with the opposite sex became the
focal point of teens' lives. Magazines geared to teens began
offering tips on how to achieve popularity with the opposite sex.
Nonetheless, until the mid-'50s teens were largely "ready, willing
and even eager to take their social cue from adults." That changed
with the advent of rock 'n' roll. The new mood of defiance and
independence impacted on the marketplace, as teens quickly emerged
as a unique group of consumers, spending, by 1964, about $100
million on records alone. In the past 20 years, the baby boomers of
the '60s have gone on to spend $200 billion a year on their
children. To her credit, Palladino goes beyond mall receipts to
larger concerns. Despite their cars, CDs, and MTV, too many of
today's teens are socially disaffected. It is up to adults, argues
Palladino, to reexamine the legacy of hypocrisy, nihilism, and
hedonism they have passed on to these children. Replete with
statistics, first-person accounts, and extensive footnotes, this is
the first social history to follow Beaver and Wally's devolution
into Beavis and Butt-Head. (Kirkus Reviews)
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 behaviour as to a commercial cult of
sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.
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