A Historian Reads: Coming of Age in Buffalo

As the previous review of Grace Palladino's Teenager: An American History noted, studies of youth and youth culture have unfortunately fallen to the trap of homogenizing a culture in the efforts to understand it. William Graebner's 1987 book Coming of Age in Buffalo was an early attempt to introduce diversity to the study of youth. He argues that youth are not all the same across the nation. Instead of approaching youth strictly as an age group, Graebner offers readers the option of looking at youth through the regional, racial, social, religious, and economic sub groups that they belong to. He does this by presenting Buffalo, NY as a case study and example of how to approach youth from the regional perspective.

Youth in Buffalo are divided by race and religion, notes Graebner, and this impacts how these youth interacted and behaved. Also important to note, is that these differences also influenced how adult authority figures reacted to these youth and their feelings towards them. Graebner uses school yearbooks, church pamphlets, and parent teacher association publications to teach readers about these divisions. However, Graebner quickly notes that these materials, even those produced by high school students, are ultimately filtered through adult authority figures and embedded with their ideas of propriety and youth. Here he stumbles upon one of the greatest problems facing historians of youth cultures and "deviant" cultures. They are rarely the creators of the primary sources about them. As seen in studies regarding teenage pregnancy in the 1940's and LGBT communities in the early twentieth century, many of the primary sources used by historians in their research are created by those in the dominant culture who record these communities and individuals using their social lenses. Youth are similarly impacted by these phenomenon because much of what they consume or create is done through the help of adults who generally exercise greater power and influence. Graebner identifies this issue and quick to note the fallacy that it creates. Studying youth often leads to greater information about adults.

This books is relatively short in length for a university press, however it is packed with detailed information about Buffalo teen culture and the diversity within. It does so through very clear writing and organization that is never confusing, overwhelming, or dull. More importantly, Graebner adds a unique spin to the tradition academic history book and includes large photos, articles, drawings, and ads from Buffalo that have an almost "scrapbook" feel. It involves the reader to a larger degree because no longer are you just reading about teen hang outs but you see photos of actual teenagers in Buffalo at a friend's house listening to music. It takes history out of the inhuman analysis and reminds us that our subjects lived and experienced life the same way we did.

Despite methodological issues that appear with a study about youth, Graebner moves the literature forward by acknowledging these trappings and using this admission to make a better analysis of youth. However, it is Graebner's approach to the generalization of youth that makes this book so noteworthy. His ideas, although provoking, did not catch on in the study of youth despite the influential nature of his book (it is frequently cited in academic and popular publications about youth and the 1950's until today). I believe it is a book worth revisiting for its theoretical thesis and can be used to inspire more detailed and localized studies of youth in America. For too long, American youth have been categorized into a homogeneous label that ignore the richness of natural diversity and this is doing more harm than good to the study of youth.