Description
Book SynopsisTeen Spirit offers a novel and provocative perspective on how we came to be living in an age of political immaturity and social turmoil. Award-winning author Paul Howe argues it''s because a teenage mentality has slowly gripped the adult world.
Howe contends that many features of how we live todaysome regrettable, others beneficialcan be traced to the emergence of a more defined adolescent stage of life in the early twentieth century, when young people started spending their formative, developmental years with peers, particularly in formal school settings. He shows how adolescent qualities have slowly seeped upward, where they have gradually reshaped the norms and habits of adulthood. The effects over the long haul, Howe contends, have been profound, in both the private realm and in the public arena of political, economic, and social interaction. Our teenage traits remain part of us as we move into adulthood, so much so that some now need instruction manuals for adultin
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Character of Adolescents
2. The Crucible of Adolescence
3. A Century of Change
4. Problems of the Present
5. Liberating Effects
6. Governing Together: Politicians, Citizens, and Democracy
7. Getting Ahead: Economic Life in the Adolescent Society
8. Adolescence Alone?
9. Bucking the Trend: The Millennials and Beyond
Conclusion
