Teenage Confidential: An Illustrated History of the American Teen
Category: Books,History,Americas
Teenage Confidential: An Illustrated History of the American Teen Details
Amazon.com Review With Teenage Confidential Chronicle Books presents another of their densely illustrated gift volumes, and, as usual, the layout and extremely rich color photos are dazzling. The imagery is so intense that it would be easy to miss the fluidly written history of the American teen that surrounds the illustrations. Pictures of shindigs and sock hops mix with reproductions from teen comic books and teenybopper record covers to provide a complete visual history of this oddly modern culture of fleeting youth desperately trying to have fun. Read more Review Reviews From: The New York Times Book Review USA Today Option By Leslie Chess Feller What? No Werewolves? Americans 'twixt 12 and 20" have been driving their parents crazy since the days of George Washington -- in the 1770's, according to Michael Barson and Steven Heller, unmarried couples were criticized for "irregular night walking, frolicking and keeping bad company." With color images as in-your-face as the average adolescent. Teenage Confidential: An Illustrated History of the American Teen takes a multimedia look at the teen-age subculture since World War II. Examining advertising artwork, magazine articles, paperback book covers, movie posters and romance comics, this lively and well-researched retrospective suggests that "the more things change, the more they remain the same." For American teenagers, music (form Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley and the Beatles) has always been a catalyst, the opposite sex an often heart-wrenching mystery, and parents there to rebel against. In "a masterful display of bifurcated vision, " the mass media promoted the "Kleen Tee," as embodied by the redheaded, bow-tied comic book hero Archie Andrews and immortalized on movie screens by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, even while sounding the alarm with dire warnings of juvenile delinquents on the rampage. Magazine exposés, dime novels and low-budget films fanned the flames of parental panic side by side with their coverage of saddle shoes, sock hops and slumber parties. Magazines like Teen Life addressed "Kissing...Petting...Going Steady" while instructional films tackled subjects like" What to do on a Date." Love comics flourished throughout the 50's and 60's, "Offering pithy lessons of dating behavior that teens cold ignore at their own peril." Teenage Confidential is a wryly nostalgic trip back to the future, a tribute to the way we were ... when we weren't in detention, that is." By Katy Kelly Cool 'Teenage Confidential': One glorious, nostalgic hoot Teenage confidential is a fine way to remind yourself that youth isn't everything. This funny illustrated history of the American teen-ager, by Michael Barson and Steven Heller, is a study in the good ("KleenTeen" Mickey Rooney in Family Affair) and the delinquent (So Young, So Bad). Teen life from the 1940s to the 1960s is remembered in glorious Technicolor movie posters (Live Fast, Die Young: "The Sin-Steeped Story of Today's 'Beat' Generation!"), Teen Life magazine covers ("Kissing, Petting, Going Steady") and Teen-Age Brides comic books ("If You were the Judge--or the Jury--Would You Brand this Girl Unfit to Marry?") From Sandra Dee to the Beatles, this paperback is a real kick. From: Option The kitschy Teenage Confidential collects books, posters and memorabilia from post-war America through the '60s, the heyday of juvenile delinquency. Filled with lipstick-stained girls who can't say no and greasy-haired boys high on heavy petting, Confidential captures the underlying innocence of the golden era of youth gone wild. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
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