Synopses & Reviews
Young adults in the modern era face a completely differently set of challenges from previous generations. Tracing historical constructions of adolescence and their role in maintaining social order, James E. Cote and Anton L. Allahar persuasively argue that young people today constitute one of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in society. Today, for the first time, teenagers and young adults in the United states, Canada, Japan, Scandinavia and Western Europe can expect to have a lower standard of living than their parents. Youth are conditioned to stay young linger and have, as a result, become socially and economically marginalized. Many young people amass credentials regardless of employment prospects and continue to live at home, often dependent on their parents, into their thirties. With fewer jobs available, young people are ironically targeted increasingly as consumers, rather than as producers. As new technologies continually reduce the work force and alter the social fabric, an entire generation of young people has struggled to keep up. What then does it mean to come of age in an advanced industrial or post-industrial society?
Synopsis
"A powerful work filled with disbelief, outrage, and documentation...sexual bondage shackles women as much today as it has for centures."
Los Angeles Times
"Exposes the dark side of sexuality and dares to ask the crucial question, 'why do men do these things to women?'...the issues it raises deserve nationwide attention."
Susan Brownmiller
"Kathy Barry has written a courageous, crusading book that should be read everywhere, from the local District Attorney's office to the United Nations."
Gloria Steinem
"This powerful and compassionate book should be read by anyone concerned with social values, with sexuality, with psychology female and male."
Adrienne Rich
About the Author
JAMES E. CÔTÉ is Professor of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario and is the author of Generation on Hold: Coming of Age in the Late Twentieth Century (also available from NYU Press).