The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

A fantastic book on the history of the concept of teenager-ness. The only bad thing I have to say about the book is also one of its biggest strengths: it moves very quickly through the historical portions, sometimes examining 30 years in one chapter. This makes the book extremely useful for beginners, but also leaves potential for concepts and movements to get lost in the shuffle. Still, HIGHLY recommended.

This was a very engrossing look at how the concept of the teenager developed in America. It traced the historical development since the first settlers. Hine seems to attribute the rise of the teenager to economic factors. Since the book was published in 1999, he doesn't go into much reflection on teenagers during the 1980s and 90s. This would be interesting to pursue.