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Teen
Spirit
By Roger Gathman
The
Rise and Fall of the
American
Teenager
By Thomas Hine
Bard Books
324 pages, $24
It is Thomas Hine's contention that the teen-ager, like the atom bomb and radar, was an invention of World War II. This isn't just a matter of the first use of the word "teen-ager," but the historic conjunction of economic forces and familial conditions that made it possible to afford a largely unemployed segment of the population--and even endow that group with enough discretionary income to make it a vital consumer force.
Hine wants to show that things weren't always like this. The narrative of his book, The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager, is about how youth, which was variously incorporated in the work force in the 18th and 19th centuries, was gradually segregated out in the 20th. Hine's version of the 20th century end of this development makes some odd stops, pausing at Mickey Rooney, then at Bobby Socksers and, 50 years down the line, a "smile strike" by Goths at Disneyland. The latter is a nice image--"hordes of pale, mascaraed Goths" descending on one of the sources of the teen-age imago, the quintessential amusement park, where they infest the benches of the aptly named Tomorrowland and act disturbingly glum. It got under the skin of enough officials at Disney that they banned the black-clad adolescents. Hines is right to see, in this impromptu bit of theater, a picture of teen--adult relations in the '90s: "The mere presence of teens threatens us."
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In These Times ©
1999
Vol. 24, No. 3 |