Teenage - by Jon Savage (Paperback)

About the Book

Fusing film, music, literature, diaries, fashion, and art, this epic cultural history from the author of "England's Dreaming" is an astonishing and surprising chronicle of modern life sure to appeal to pop culture fans.

Book Synopsis

In his previous landmark book on youth culture and teen angst, the award-winning England's Dreaming, Jon Savage presented the "definitive history of the English punk movement" (The New York Times). Now, in Teenage, he explores the secret prehistory of a phenomenon we thought we knew, in a monumental work of cultural investigative reporting. Beginning in 1875 and ending in 1945, when the term "teenage" became an integral part of popular culture, Savage draws widely on film, music, literature high and low, fashion, politics, and art and fuses popular culture and social history into a stunning chronicle of modern life.

Review Quotes

"The definitive history of youth in revolt, from the gaslight age to the dawn of rock."
-David Fricke, Rolling Stone

"Compulsive reading . . . Teenage is a rich, rewarding book that makes an important contribution to cultural history."
-Camille Paglia, The New York Times Book Review

"Resonant . . . Savage explores . . . [an] array of teenager types, from the wild, sensational precursors to juvenile delinquency to the straight-laced good-citizen proto- preppie. It's Savage's claim to being a great historian, and it's mighty convincing."
-The Onion

About the Author

Jon Savage is a "leading punk expert" (AllMusic) and the author of 1966: The Year The Decade Exploded; England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock; and Teenage: The Creation of Youth, 1875-1945. He is the writer of the award-winning film documentaries The Brian Epstein Story and Joy Division, as well as the feature film Teenage. Savage has written liner notes for Wire, St. Etienne and the Pet Shop Boys, among others, and his compilations include Dreams Come True: Classic Electro 1982-87 (Domino); Meridian 1970 (Heavenly/EMI); and Queer Noises: From the Closet to the Charts, 1961-1976 (Trikont). He is a regular contributor to the Guardian.