1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782690903321

Autore

Chinn Sarah E

Titolo

Inventing modern adolescence [[electronic resource] ] : the children of immigrants in turn-of-the-century America / / Sarah E. Chinn

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick, N.J., : Rutgers University Press, c2009

ISBN

1-281-95874-3

9786611958749

0-8135-4595-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (216 p.)

Collana

The Rutgers series in childhood studies

Disciplina

305.23086/9120973

Soggetti

Children of immigrants - United States - History - 20th century

Conflict of generations - United States - History - 20th century

Adolescence - United States - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-191) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: “I Don’t Understand What’s Come Over the Children of This Generation” -- 1. “Youth Must Have Its Fling”: The Beginnings of Modern Adolescence -- 2. Picturing Labor: Lewis W. Hine, the Child Labor Movement, and the Meanings of Adolescent Work -- 3. “Irreverence and the American Spirit”: Immigrant Parents, American Adolescents, and the Invention of the Generation Gap -- 4. “Youth Demands Amusement”: Dancing, Dance Halls, and the Exercise of Adolescent Freedom -- 5. “Youth Is Always Turbulent”: Reinterpretations of Adolescence from Bohemia to Samoa -- Epilogue: Smells Like Teen Spirit -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The 1960's are commonly considered to be the beginning of a distinct "teenage culture" in America. But did this highly visible era of free love and rock 'n' roll really mark the start of adolescent defiance? In Inventing Modern Adolescence Sarah E. Chinn follows the roots of American teenage identity further back, to the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. She argues that the concept of the "generation gap"—a stereotypical complaint against American teens—actually originated with the division between immigrant parents



and their American-born or -raised children. Melding a uniquely urban immigrant sensibility with commercialized consumer culture and a youth-oriented ethos characterized by fun, leisure, and overt sexual behavior, these young people formed a new identity that provided the framework for today's concepts of teenage lifestyle. Addressing the intersecting issues of urban life, race, gender, sexuality, and class consciousness, Inventing Modern Adolescence is an authoritative and engaging look at a pivotal point in American history and the intriguing, complicated, and still very pertinent teenage identity that emerged from it.