Teenage Confidential

An Illustrated History of the American Teen By Michael Barson
and Steven Heller

8-1/2 x 11 in; 132 pp ; 150 full-color photographs
Paperback
Published in October, 1997
ISBN 0811815846
ISBN13 9780811815840
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$16.95

Teenage Confidential -- When did those awkward, tormented creatures known as teenagers first crawl out of the primordial ooze and into American culture? Believe it or not, they didn't always exist. It was not until World War II, with grown men off fighting and grown women working in factories, that adolescents were left idle and unsupervised long enough to wreak havoc. In the forties, fifties, and sixties a new breed of youth evolved -- the juvenile delinquent -- and this state of emergency was quickly dramatized in every cultural medium. In Teenage Confidential, Michael Barson and Steve Heller conduct a guided tour through three decades of teen angst, displayed in shocking Technicolor on movie posters, paperbacks, comic books, advertising art, television shows, and Top Forty music paraphernalia. From Father Knows Best to Youth Runs Wild, this unflinching survey spotlights the sordid ways of our rebel youth.

Michael Barson is the author of Better Dead Than Red!; Lost, Lonely and Vicious; and Born to Be Bad. He lives in New York.

Steven Heller is the art director of the New York Times Book Review. He is the author of over ninety books on graphic design, popular art, and satiric art. He lives in New York City.

Read an exclusive interview with Steven Heller.

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