Images of Youth

Abstract

This is a study of the debate on male youth in the period 1880–1920. During these years, male working-class youth was regarded as posing a serious problem, not only economically, but also morally and socially. The author investigates the ‘making’ of this problem, examining attitudes towards youth and its behaviour, contemporary perceptions of ‘boy labour’, and the ‘discovery’ of the working-class adolescent. He goes on to consider the attempts to solve the problem and create adaptable and efficient citizens, by measures including philanthropy (the youth movement), collectivism (a juvenile labour exchange and vocational guide system), and further education (part-time day continuation schools). The book demonstrates the significance, long underestimated, of the male adolescent in British society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The study illuminates such major issues as poverty, unemployment, race, class conflict, industrial unrest, and the nature of democracy. Drawing in a further dimension, he charts the development of child and adolescent psychology and its contribution to the definition and perpetuation of the youth problem. He argues that the images of youth forged in this period had important and far-reaching consequences for age and class relations.