A Historian Reads: Teenagers, An American History

In the process of doing any historical writing, it is necessary to do what historians call, historiography. What this means is reading what other people have written about the subject we are interested in. This is an important step for historians because it informs us about our subject but also lets us know what has already been discussed and how it has been discussed. Historians generally do not want to write something somebody else has already written about unless they disagree with the previous account. Either way, historians must dedicate their time to understanding the discourse about their research topic. In my own research I have had to do several groups of historiography because my topic touches on a variety of topic. My study lies within their intersections.

One of the books I have read during my historiography research is Teenagers: An American History by historian Grace Palladino. Palladino's study looks at youth in America from the mid-twentieth century onwards. She explores the concept of youth and "teenagers," which are relatively new constructs in our vocabulary. The teenager, as we think of them today, was discovered during the Great Depression as high schools became mandated and culture became divided by age. During World War II Palladino demonstrates that increased freedom and concern with the war allowed teens to develop a culture separate from adults and young children. Both men and women began to develop their own social structures outside of adult supervision and regulation. Mainly due to the power that disposable income gave them, teenagers created their own ideas about what was desirable, fashionable, and necessary. With the war over, a return to "normalcy" desired by most Americans, and the second Red Scare in full boom, those in power reacted to teenagers. Comics, movies, and music became the target of accusations of communism and subversion. To reformers and parents, these popular culture products were responsible for turning their well behaved children into wild and rebellious delinquents.

Teenagers having fun and disapproving adults looking on.

Palladino's book achieves its goal of expressing American history through the perspective of the teenager. It is ambition and covers a rather large span of time. However, her book has one glaring issue. It ignores the experiences of minority teenagers. Outside of a chapter about African American teens in the South, Palladino's story is about white middle class teens living in the mid-west and east coast. This has been one of the prevailing issues in youth culture studies. Until recently, African American, Latino American, and other minority groups have not been explored as a part of youth culture. An earlier book about youth culture, William Graebner's Coming of Age in Buffalo, expressed the need for historians to look at youth culture as a diverse collection of subcultures that are divided by race, religion, and class. Palladino does not take Graebner's statement into consideration and continues the narrow view of youth that is just now beginning to be expanded. However, Palladino's study should not be dismissed. Palladino persuasively discusses the role of white middle class teens in American social history and insures that readers will leave with a better understanding of what teenagers and teen culture mean in the context of the past century. For the purposes of my research, Palladino does contribute to my own understanding of youth culture and how youth culture has been understood by historians until recent years. More importantly, it provides me with a prime example of why my own research is such a necessary contribution to the field.