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Psychology Adulthood & Aging

Teen Spirit

How Adolescence Transformed the Adult World

by (author) Paul Howe

Publisher
Cornell University Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2020
Category
Adulthood & Aging, Adolescence, General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781501749827
    Publish Date
    Nov 2020
    List Price
    $40.95

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Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 18
  • Grade: 12

Description

Teen 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 today'some regrettable, others beneficial?can 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 adulting.

Teen Spirit challenges our assumptions about the boundaries between adolescence and adulthood. Yet despite a cultural system that seems to be built on the ethos of Generation Me, it's not all bad. In fact, there has been an equally impressive rise in creativity, diversity, and tolerance within society: all traits stemming from core components of the adolescent character. Howe's bold and suggestive approach to analyzing the teen in all of us helps make sense of the impulsivity driving society and encourages us to think anew about civic reengagement.

About the author

Paul Howe is associate professor, political science, University of New Brunswick, and a research fellow at the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP). André Blais is professor, political science, Université de Montréal, researcher, Centre interu

Paul Howe's profile page

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