Publisher's Synopsis
Michael Mitterauer's History of Youth is a general survey of the place of young people in European social history. The author attempts to define youth and to discuss the impact which social changes can have on the course of adolescence. Mitterauer also looks at the lifestyles of young people in various traditional cultures, considering their status, their working life, education, clubs and societies and gender differences. The emergence of a modern international youth culture is charted, and is shown to be a radical departure from all previous social-historical patterns of adolescent life. The book is arranged thematically, rather than chronologically. Rather than attempting to relate the history of youth as a sequence of developments, it juxtaposes different periods and cultures to draw out contrasts which hint at the richness and variety of adolescent experience. While the breadth of the field makes it impossible to deal with every aspect in equal depth, the author offers us a comprehensive overview of the subject with many colourful details.;This book will provide a useful starting point for more specialized studies in both history and sociology, and will be of interest to all who are professionally involved with children and young people.
