Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades

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.

LUCY ROLLIN teaches Children's and Adolescent Literature at Clemson University. She has published books on nursery rhymes, psychoanalytic approaches to children's literature, and film adaptations, and has edited the Oxford World's Classics edition of Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. She has published many articles on popular culture and on literature for young readers.