Youth culture is not an invention of twentieth-century movies and television; youth have been forming their own cultures from the moment they were given space to invent their own ways of relating to one another and to their parents and communities. Taking a global approach and beginning in early modern Europe, the essays in the Oxford Handbook of the History of Youth Culture provide broadly contextualized case studies exploring how the meanings and expressions of both "youth" and "culture" have developed. The authors show that youth culture has been shaped by geography, ethnicity, class, gender, faith, technology, and myriad other factors. Throughout, authors emphasize the ways in which the idea of youth culture could become contested terrain -- between youth and their families, their communities, and the culture at large -- as well as the importance of youth agency in carving out separate lives.

The author, editor, or co-editor of more than twenty books, James Marten taught at Marquette University for thirty-six years, where is now Professor of History Emeritus. He was a founder of the Society for the History of Children and Youth and served as the Society's president from 2013-2015. He is a former editor of the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth.

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Youth Culture
1. Introduction: A Kaleidoscope of Youth Cultures
James Marten
Part I: Premodern Youth Cultures
2. Monastic and University Education in the Medieval and Early Modern West
Andrew Reeves
3. Coming of Age in Elite Families, c. 1200-c. 1650
Louise J. Wilkinson
4. Contested Territory: Non-elite Youth and Youth Culture in the Premodern West
Adriana Benzaquén
Part II: Shaping Modern Youth Cultures
5. Youth Participation in Political Violence: Comparative Cultural Constructions
David M. Rosen
6. Youth Culture as a Battleground: Atlantic World Slavery and Enslaved Youth in Jamaica
Colleen A. Vasconcellos
7. A "Tomboy" and a "Lady": Religion, Modernity, and Youth Culture in Twentieth-Century Zanzibar
Corrie Decker
8. Industrialization: Youth at Work
James Schmidt
9. Urbanization: Youth Gangs and Street Cultures
Simon Sleight and Jasper Heeks
10. Gender, Agency, and Sex: Postwar European Youth and the Generation Gap
David Niget
Part III: Self Expression
11. The Power of Style: Transnational Youth (Sub)Cultures, Socialist Habitats, and the Cold War
Juliane Fürst
12. Play Cultures, Social Worlds, and Youth in Familial Settings, 1700-1904
Mary Clare Martin
13. Youth Culture and Indian Boarding Schools
Kristine Alexander
14. Globalizing the Americas through Twentieth-Century Youth Organizations
Elena Jackson Albarrán
15. Youth and Consumer Culture: Entrepreneurial Consumption
Elizabeth Chin
16. Youth Cultures of Activism and Politics
Nazan Maksudyan
17. Sexuality, Youth Cultures, and the Persistence of the Double Standard in the Twentieth-Century United States
Nicholas L. Syrett
18. Celebrating Holidays and Instilling Values: Religion, Nationalism, and Youth Organization in Twentieth-Century Youth Culture
Dylan Baun
Part IV: Representations of Youth
19. Youth in the Visual Arts
Ann Barrott Wicks
20. Transforming Rebellion into Affirmation: A History of Youth Literature and Reading Cultures
Paul Ringel
21. Youth Culture on Screens Big and Small
Helle Strandgaard Jensen and Gary Cross
22. Paradox and Possibility: Youth Media Culture across the Globe
Stuart R. Poyntz
Index