A History of Young People V 1 – Ancient & Medieval Rites of Passage - Hardcover

Levi, Giovanni

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067440405X ISBN 13: 9780674404052

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Historians and social scientists give an account of what youth has been in the West and what it has meant through the ages, tracing the changing character of young people in culture, society, economics, politics and art from early times.

About this title

Review

Provides valuable insights on the literary, artistic, and legal material on youth in selected times and places and in illuminating prevailing cultural values. "A History of Young People in the West..".contributes numerous insights to the growing literature on social and family history. -- David Wagner "Washington Times" One of the most fascinating features of the 17 essays, and introduction, that make up these two volumes is the predominance of that anxiety, from ancient Greece to Fifties American culture, to bring the young within the ideological embrace of the "polis," or state. -- Seamus Deane "The Observer" The studies "A History of Young People" contains are interesting, and they have the great merit of making the work of some notable Italian and French scholars accessible to an Anglophone public. They are well translated, preserving the ornateness of the originals...Collectively, the lasting impression these volumes leave is of the exploitation of innocence, and the control exerted by those in authority--church, state or parents--over the lives of children growing up. -- Rosamond McKitterick "New York Times Book Review" Youth is a social construct; it is also a biological state. It therefore always shares some characteristics across cultures, for example the onset of early sexual maturity, while also reflecting each society's different expectations. Social class and gender will be crucial too in determining how these expectations are experienced by young people. So, given this model of what we understand by 'youth', a two-volume history of young people can only be a highly ambitious project...The editors of these two volumes and their translators are to be congratulated for providing some fascinating reading. -- Nicholas Tucker "History Today"

About the Author

Giovanni Levi is Professor of Economic History at the University of Venice. Jean-Claude Schmitt is Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 067440405X
• ISBN 13: 9780674404052
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 402