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The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager: A Groundbreaking Study of Youth Identity from Puritans to Modern Consumerism
In this groundbreaking work, Thomas Hine examines the American teenager as a social invention shaped by the needs of the twentieth century. With intelligence, insight, imagination, and humor he traces the culture of youth in America - from the spiritual trials of young Puritans and the vision quests of Native Americans to the media-blitzed consumerism of contemporary thirteen-to-nineteen-year-olds. The resulting study is a glorious appreciation of youth that challenges us to confront our stereotypes, rethink our expectations, and consider anew the lives of those individuals who are our blessing, our bane, and our future.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Thomas Hine
10 books5 followersThomas Hine is a writer on history, culture and design. He is the author of five books, and he contributes frequently to magazines, including The Magazine Antiques, Philadelphia Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Martha Stewart Living, Architectural Record and others. He is a senior contributing writer to Home Miami and Home Fort Lauderdale.
He has been praised in the New Yorker by John Updike for his "mischievously alert sensibility, and was recently cited by House & Garden as "America's sharpest design critic." Populuxe--a word he coined as the title of his first book to describe the styles and enthusiasms of post-World War II America, has entered the language and is now included in the American Heritage and Random House dictionaries.
From 1973 until 1996, he was the architecture and design critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1977 and 1978, he was a Ford Foundation fellow, traveling in Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Soviet Union and elsewhere to study the impact of rapid political change on architecture and planning.
Recently, he was guest curator of Promises of Paradise, a groundbreaking exhibition on the design of post World War II South Florida. He also was an adviser to the Orange County Museum Art on its 2007-2009 touring exhibition Birth of the Cool and wrote an essay for its highly-praised, award-winning catalogue. Earlier, he was guest curator for the Denver Art Museum touring exhibition US Design: 1975-2000. He also wrote one of the essays in its catalogue. He worked with the National Building Museum on On the Job, a 2001 exhibition and catalogue about offices, and with the Fairmount Park Art Association on its New Landmarks exhibition and catalogue, which explored a new approach to public art. In 1989, he was an advisor to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, on its exhibition, Landmarks for Modern Living, about the post World War II Case Study House program, and he contributed an essay to its prize-winning catalogue.
Other books to which he has contributed chapters include Volare(1999) and Material Man (2000),both created by the Fashion Engineering Unit of Florence Italy, and Life: A Century of Change (2000).
He has taught courses at both the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. He has lectured at Yale, Syracuse, Drexel, and Michigan State Universities; museums including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Worcester Art Museum; and to professional and trade associations including the American Institute of Architects and the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
He was born in suburban Boston, grew up in Connecticut, and graduated from Yale. He has lived in Philadelphia since 1970.
He has been praised in the New Yorker by John Updike for his "mischievously alert sensibility, and was recently cited by House & Garden as "America's sharpest design critic." Populuxe--a word he coined as the title of his first book to describe the styles and enthusiasms of post-World War II America, has entered the language and is now included in the American Heritage and Random House dictionaries.
From 1973 until 1996, he was the architecture and design critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1977 and 1978, he was a Ford Foundation fellow, traveling in Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Soviet Union and elsewhere to study the impact of rapid political change on architecture and planning.
Recently, he was guest curator of Promises of Paradise, a groundbreaking exhibition on the design of post World War II South Florida. He also was an adviser to the Orange County Museum Art on its 2007-2009 touring exhibition Birth of the Cool and wrote an essay for its highly-praised, award-winning catalogue. Earlier, he was guest curator for the Denver Art Museum touring exhibition US Design: 1975-2000. He also wrote one of the essays in its catalogue. He worked with the National Building Museum on On the Job, a 2001 exhibition and catalogue about offices, and with the Fairmount Park Art Association on its New Landmarks exhibition and catalogue, which explored a new approach to public art. In 1989, he was an advisor to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, on its exhibition, Landmarks for Modern Living, about the post World War II Case Study House program, and he contributed an essay to its prize-winning catalogue.
Other books to which he has contributed chapters include Volare(1999) and Material Man (2000),both created by the Fashion Engineering Unit of Florence Italy, and Life: A Century of Change (2000).
He has taught courses at both the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. He has lectured at Yale, Syracuse, Drexel, and Michigan State Universities; museums including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Worcester Art Museum; and to professional and trade associations including the American Institute of Architects and the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
He was born in suburban Boston, grew up in Connecticut, and graduated from Yale. He has lived in Philadelphia since 1970.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 20, 2015
Apparently there were no teenagers in America before 1941. At least none that went by that name. The first known use of the term teenager was in an article in Popular Science magazine in that year. I found that rather surprising since the term teenager seems a logical way to refer to those between the ages of 14 and 19.
So what were teenagers before we called them teenagers? For one thing, in pre-20th century America, a young person’s size was more important than his or her age. That is partly because by the time they reached adolescence they were expected to contribute to the family, whether than was on a farm, or later in a factory. The author states that by age 14 a young person was thought of as an “inexperienced adult.” That’s a definition that I think Hine prefers. “Once we understand that the teenager…is a figment of our collective imagination…all generations will benefit.”
The term teenager really refers to something more than age. It is a collective identity, a culture. Hine outlines how we got to that point. Most of it was about young people being with each other rather than just their families. He notes the popularity of dance halls in the beginning of the 20th century and the advent of movies. Dating replaced traditional customs of courtship and cars provided a private place to date (among other things).
But in Hine’s view the biggest issue in the creation of the concept of teenagers was high school. And it was not until the Depression, when jobs for young people were scarce, that the majority of student aged Americans attended high school. “Without high school, there are no teenagers,” according to Hine. The book is in fact a history of high school as an American institution.
He traces some of the landmark events in the creation of a teenage culture. The magazine “Seventeen” made its debut in 1944. That is important because it represented another of the forces that created the concept of teenager, marketers who saw the potential of young folks as a lucrative group to sell to. There was also what Hine calls the 1954 “outburst of teen culture” that included Elvis Presley and James Dean and the debut of “American Bandstand” in 1957.
While the author clearly describes the “rise” of the American teenager, I didn’t find the “fall” part as convincing. Hine’s “classic period of the American teenager” is in the years between World War II and Vietnam. It starts to come undone in the early 70’s with the realization that America cannot win the Vietnam War, the Arab oil embargo and Nixon’s resignation. It was in 1973 that Hine says “America ran out of gas.” That was the beginning of the end for the idea of a unified teen identity.
Written in 1999, the book is a little dated when it comes to describing modern day teenagers. He describes how youth culture has broken down into several subcultures and how “rather than protest young people have simply disengaged.” Again, nowhere is this more apparent than in high school.
So what were teenagers before we called them teenagers? For one thing, in pre-20th century America, a young person’s size was more important than his or her age. That is partly because by the time they reached adolescence they were expected to contribute to the family, whether than was on a farm, or later in a factory. The author states that by age 14 a young person was thought of as an “inexperienced adult.” That’s a definition that I think Hine prefers. “Once we understand that the teenager…is a figment of our collective imagination…all generations will benefit.”
The term teenager really refers to something more than age. It is a collective identity, a culture. Hine outlines how we got to that point. Most of it was about young people being with each other rather than just their families. He notes the popularity of dance halls in the beginning of the 20th century and the advent of movies. Dating replaced traditional customs of courtship and cars provided a private place to date (among other things).
But in Hine’s view the biggest issue in the creation of the concept of teenagers was high school. And it was not until the Depression, when jobs for young people were scarce, that the majority of student aged Americans attended high school. “Without high school, there are no teenagers,” according to Hine. The book is in fact a history of high school as an American institution.
He traces some of the landmark events in the creation of a teenage culture. The magazine “Seventeen” made its debut in 1944. That is important because it represented another of the forces that created the concept of teenager, marketers who saw the potential of young folks as a lucrative group to sell to. There was also what Hine calls the 1954 “outburst of teen culture” that included Elvis Presley and James Dean and the debut of “American Bandstand” in 1957.
While the author clearly describes the “rise” of the American teenager, I didn’t find the “fall” part as convincing. Hine’s “classic period of the American teenager” is in the years between World War II and Vietnam. It starts to come undone in the early 70’s with the realization that America cannot win the Vietnam War, the Arab oil embargo and Nixon’s resignation. It was in 1973 that Hine says “America ran out of gas.” That was the beginning of the end for the idea of a unified teen identity.
Written in 1999, the book is a little dated when it comes to describing modern day teenagers. He describes how youth culture has broken down into several subcultures and how “rather than protest young people have simply disengaged.” Again, nowhere is this more apparent than in high school.
November 12, 2014
Pros: The historical and sociological research in this book is incredibly impressive. I definitely learned a lot about our nation's views on youth and youth culture throughout the last two centuries from this book. Cons: It definitely reads like a textbook, and thus, unless you're completely mesmerized by the material (I wasn't, though I was interested enough to keep plowing through it), it can be seriously dry, which is why such a short book took me such a long time to finish reading.
December 4, 2017
In speaking of teenage life in the American West of the late 19th century, Hine cites the recollections of Miguel Antonio Otero of his boyhood in Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico.
I’m now getting to the meat of Hine’s book, the development of High School, the laboratory that created the current idea of “teenagers”. He writes of Philadelphia’s Central High in the mid-19th century:
For a relatively short book which I mostly enjoyed, it took me a long time to read. One thing that made for difficult reading is that parts of Hine’s discussion of midcentury teenage life provoked some unwelcome memories of my own teen years. It made me realize how very little of what I read has much to do with my own life as I have lived it.
It's striking how many of Otero's contemporaries met violent ends, whether in gunfights, Indian combat, or hunting accidents. He noted offhandedly at one point that suicide was also common.That last sentence came as a surprise to me, though given the modern correlation between gun ownership and suicide, it probably shouldn't have. Up to that point, the account of youth on the frontier was mostly a recitation of standard tropes of the time and place: cattle drives, group barroom brawls, and dance-hall gals, so much so that Hine says, "One sometimes wonders whether Otero and other memoirists are remembering movies they've seen, rather than their own lives." I don't think I've ever encountered a depiction of suicide in any of the Westerns I've seen or read.
I’m now getting to the meat of Hine’s book, the development of High School, the laboratory that created the current idea of “teenagers”. He writes of Philadelphia’s Central High in the mid-19th century:
when the anitimmigrant Know-Nothing Party took control of the Philadelphia city government, Central was forced to stop the teaching of all foreign languages – even Anglo-Saxon.Hine's overview of the roles of and reactions to American young people in their second decade (not referred to as “teenagers” until 1940) over the centuries was interesting, as was his examination of the convergence of historical vectors which resulted in the concept of “high school” as I attended it. The book made me see the familiar in a new way, and in retrospect high school was a rather strange concept: serving the community as a combination of college prep, vocational training, minimum security detention facility, and minor-league sports franchise.
For a relatively short book which I mostly enjoyed, it took me a long time to read. One thing that made for difficult reading is that parts of Hine’s discussion of midcentury teenage life provoked some unwelcome memories of my own teen years. It made me realize how very little of what I read has much to do with my own life as I have lived it.
September 12, 2024
Hine looks at the way America (and other cultures before us) have understood and dealt with adolescence. As he sees it, for a long time being a teenager was less important than things like how big you were (a strapping 12 year old might be a worker before a smaller 15 year old), what your parents did (as you'd probably follow them), where you lived, whether you were slave or free: there was no uniform teenage experience. As high school eventually became the norm, it created a common teen culture which marketers and advertisers then reinforced.
Interesting, but stiff and dry — not as fun to read as Hine's Populuxe and Great Funk. And he runs out of steam as he gets to Kids These Days (this came out at the end of the last century).
Interesting, but stiff and dry — not as fun to read as Hine's Populuxe and Great Funk. And he runs out of steam as he gets to Kids These Days (this came out at the end of the last century).
July 30, 2020
really well written but teeter-totters on misogyny at times. Here are a few things I learned:
term 'teenager' coined in the 1940s
teenagers of immigrants had authority in the house, teaching them how to behave
assumption
American culture teaches people to be heroes of their own lives
Great Awakening: calvinistic conversion marketed to all
bypassed role of father as spiritual authority
academic vs practical schooling "Art is long and time is short" -B. Franklin
1862 Merrill Act passed by Congress which linked agriculture with education
sybaritic: self-indulgent
Tribes are about yearning to belong to a group
term 'teenager' coined in the 1940s
teenagers of immigrants had authority in the house, teaching them how to behave
assumption
American culture teaches people to be heroes of their own lives
Great Awakening: calvinistic conversion marketed to all
bypassed role of father as spiritual authority
academic vs practical schooling "Art is long and time is short" -B. Franklin
1862 Merrill Act passed by Congress which linked agriculture with education
sybaritic: self-indulgent
Tribes are about yearning to belong to a group
July 23, 2017
This book radically changed how I view the "American teenager". The author does an impeccable job explaining the history and context of the evolving teenage group and how it all lead to the artificial and, honestly, useless label we use today. It is refreshingly neutral politically and weaves facts with first-hand accounts of how teenagers were viewed from the Puritan colonies to modern day. After masterfully holding up a mirror to our society's shortcomings in dealing with adolescents, the author with a call to reform that both inspires and convicts. I highly, highly recommend!
August 31, 2019
Had some high points but ultimately lost my attention.
May 29, 2016
This book is probably best-suited to be read as a history of the United States from the mid-1800s to the late 1990s as framed by the construction and changing identities of "teenagers." The Industrial Revolution led to "factory girls" and rampant child labor outside of the confines of the family farm, leaving no room between childhood and adulthood. The Great Depression may actually be responsible for the modern-day expectation of teenagers to attend high school - there were no job opportunities, so youth may as well stay in school longer. The automobile played its role in teenage sexuality and consumerism, etc. Where I think this book goes a little wrong is in its dealing with race and feminism. I would not expect this book to be intersectional by any means - Hine is pretty upfront about the concept of "teenager" being a predominantly white middle class category until recently - but, all the more reason why I wish he would not give any credibility to the racist notion of "superpredators."
Additionally, towards the end of the book, he makes the antifeminist statement: "It may have been chauvinist to assume, for example, that most girls would find their identities as wives and mothers, Yet, it's equally wrong to see something so fundamental as motherhood, as a minor part of life that should be subordinated to what are, for the most people, the dissatisfactions of work." As someone who was peak teenager during the time this book was written in 1998, published 1999, it seems all too obvious that this older white man just didn't quite get what was happening at the time.
Additionally, towards the end of the book, he makes the antifeminist statement: "It may have been chauvinist to assume, for example, that most girls would find their identities as wives and mothers, Yet, it's equally wrong to see something so fundamental as motherhood, as a minor part of life that should be subordinated to what are, for the most people, the dissatisfactions of work." As someone who was peak teenager during the time this book was written in 1998, published 1999, it seems all too obvious that this older white man just didn't quite get what was happening at the time.
January 23, 2015
This review was featured at MostlySensible.com
Thomas Hine provides some interesting observations in this semi-historical book about the recent phenomenon called “the teenager.” The author’s opinion is that before the Depression and WWII, teenagers were considered adults as soon as they were capable of performing adult work and responsibilities. Since then, they have been “set aside” to wait until they become adults. His point is “not to assert that all people in their teens should be considered full-fledged adults and be treated accordingly. Rather…that they should be treated as beginners—inexperienced people who aren’t fundamentally different from adults, but who usually need more help, more attention, and more patience.” The reader must remember that this is a secular book, and many of the issues he sees are far different than those a conservative Christian should see. However, it is refreshing to read an author who sees the possibility of expecting much more from our teens than we might assume.
Thomas Hine provides some interesting observations in this semi-historical book about the recent phenomenon called “the teenager.” The author’s opinion is that before the Depression and WWII, teenagers were considered adults as soon as they were capable of performing adult work and responsibilities. Since then, they have been “set aside” to wait until they become adults. His point is “not to assert that all people in their teens should be considered full-fledged adults and be treated accordingly. Rather…that they should be treated as beginners—inexperienced people who aren’t fundamentally different from adults, but who usually need more help, more attention, and more patience.” The reader must remember that this is a secular book, and many of the issues he sees are far different than those a conservative Christian should see. However, it is refreshing to read an author who sees the possibility of expecting much more from our teens than we might assume.
November 10, 2017
This was a really interesting book, and if you deal with teenagers on a regardless basis it is extremely enlightening even as we approach a generation of students that are ultimately beyond the scope of the book. Hine gives some insight into the influence of the teenage generation on other, particularly older generations.
The economic implications of a generation with almost completely disposal income makes whatever the current generation of teenagers is, one of the greatest drivers of culture, because their purchasing power will drive sway marketers and producers.
All in all Hine does a great job and develops an interesting history that makes us rethink the rubric we view the American teenager through.
The economic implications of a generation with almost completely disposal income makes whatever the current generation of teenagers is, one of the greatest drivers of culture, because their purchasing power will drive sway marketers and producers.
All in all Hine does a great job and develops an interesting history that makes us rethink the rubric we view the American teenager through.
November 21, 2014
Great book. Saw it quoted in an awake journal so googled it and got it at the local library. Thought provoking. Good history. I think every American should read regardless of age just to see how this knowledge affects their perception of what they considered to be the struggles of their time. How our struggles play into the bigger picture of history as well as how much our struggles are manufactured by society and commerce. Gave me a very encouraging new way to look at the younger generation, with more respect, and confidence. Adults generally think do poorly of today's teens. But I really feel that whole opinion has been manufactured for us too. Also, while not horribly indepth about schooling gave some insight into the broken schooling system.
April 11, 2010
The premise of this book was very interesting to me. I found the first two thirds of the book to be informative as it dealt with how teenagers have lived during different decades in our nation's history. But I thought he had less insight to offer when it came to teenagers in the 1950s and after. Lots of repetition of his former ideas and I felt like his research was lacking in the latter part of the book. There were many editing mistakes also, but I think there is a newer edition that most likely takes care of these errors.
December 7, 2011
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.
July 28, 2008
It's amazing to hear how the same "threats" that teenagers pose to society today have been pronounced in the media since the early 1900's. Thomas Hine is a master of popular culture investigation, with this book being his most expansive and ambitious. If you have an interest in history, sociology or pop culture, I can't recommend this book (or almost any by Hine) enough.
June 28, 2012
Did you know that 12/13 year old girls once frequented dance halls after their jobs? A 10 year old and a 16 year old could work alongside each other if they were physically similar according to society? This book illuminated the a fascinating history of teenagers and how we have transformed our view of them in or society. It also was another good reminder of why history is so cyclical.
December 27, 2012
The author presents a pretty good history of the "teenage culture," yet he fails at getting to the root of the problem. He focuses on the violence and the sinful pleasures that modern teens enjoy, but doesn't say that the reason behind those symptoms is rooted in anti-biblical worldviews. As a result, the author fails to give a complete solution to the problem.
October 20, 2016
A must read for anyone working with 6th-12th graders or seeking to understand how we got to teenage subculture in our country. Hine makes solid points challenging our accepted systems for teens including high school and child-labor laws. The history of this particular age group is work thinking about in relation to how we move forward in helping empower, mature, and relate to teenagers.
September 10, 2008
What a surprise to learn that kids were once never even classified as teens and that teens used to not have to attend school. Just a few of the historical aspects of the modern-day teenager I learned about in this book.
April 18, 2009
This is an absolute must read book for parents, teens, teachers, and pastors/youth pastors. Though Hine is an unbelieving journalist, the history is fascinating and challenging to the modern myth of adolescence.
April 24, 2013
This is a book that I will continue to read and re-read. It totally reshaped my understanding of the movement in the last 100 years of the youth movement and how it has impacted all facets of life. An absolute must read!
May 5, 2016
Definitely interesting, I thought, but it reads like a text book and I had nightmares of staying up late into the night studying. I had to read it without too much outside noise. It would be interesting if the author would do a revised edition that included the last 16 years.
August 22, 2008
Helpful reframing
May 30, 2008
Whatever.
November 23, 2008
I was surprised at how much I liked it. A sociology book that is WELL WRITTEN? SHOCKING!
January 10, 2009
The book has a lot of interesting concepts and theories, but there are very few primary sources. The author can also become annoying at times as he is far from concise.
October 13, 2009
Outstanding overview of the origins of the teenager. Good companion to Schlect's Critique of Modern Youth Ministry
August 22, 2011
It's a little slow but the principles are interesting. Overall I thought it was worth my time.
September 18, 2011
SDMB recommendation
November 7, 2011
Reading for school, it's ok but could be better.
January 1, 2012
This book chronicles the history of teenagehood in America, the rise of teenage culture and what teenagers face in today's complex world. Some good parts, but mostly worth lightly skimming.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews