Overview
The 1960s 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.
Full Product Details
Author: Sarah E. Chinn
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Imprint: Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.312kg
ISBN: 9780813543109
ISBN 10: 081354310
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 05 November 2008
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Sarah Chinn is an extraordinarily creative scholar who draws on an unusually rich palette of sources to create this provocative work. Inventing Modern Adolescence ties our immigration history to our contemporary concerns about youth in an original and exciting way. - Virginia Yans, Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor in History, Rutgers University
Sarah Chinn is an extraordinarily creative scholar who draws on an unusually rich palette of sources to create this provocative work. Inventing Modern Adolescence ties our immigration history to our contemporary concerns about youth in an original and exciting way. - Virginia Yans, Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor in History, Rutgers University
Author Information
SARAH E. CHINN is an associate professor of English at Hunter College, and the executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.
