Includes bibliographical references (pages 470-523) and index.

Introduction -- Heaven and hell : Marie Bashkirtseff and Jesse Pomeroy -- Nationalists and decadents : the European counter-revolution -- Hooligans and apaches : juvenile delinquency and the mass media -- L. Frank Baum and the dreamland of Oz -- America and adolescence -- Peter Pan and the Boy Scouts : imperial British youth -- High-school freshmen and factory fodder : American adolescence and industry -- Wandervogel and neo pagans : Europe's back to nature movements -- Nickleodeons and animal dances : the American dream economy -- Invocation : the European generation gap -- Sacrifice : the war dead and the young against the old -- The class of 1902 : juvenile delinquency and the Great War -- Jazz bands and doughboys : America enters Europe -- Postwar shocks : the fascisti, the German Bunde, and the woodcraft folk -- Sheiks and shebas : the American youth market -- The Cinderella complex and the problems of America's mass culture -- The bright young people and the limits of pleasure -- The Hitler youth -- The Children's Army and the New Deal : American adolescents in the Depression -- Biff boys and the red menace : the polarisation of British youth -- Jitterbugs and ickies : American swing and youth consumerism -- Conquerors and overlords : the Nazi juggernaut -- Reluctant conscripts and socialist heroes : Britain mobilises -- Sub-debs and GIs : American adolescents in school and in uniform -- German swing kids and French zazous : swing as resistance in Nazi Europe -- Zoot suiters and victory girls : American unrest in 1943 -- The peaceful invaders : American soldiers and British youth -- Helmuth Hubener, the White Rose, and Anne Frank : resistance in Nazi Europe -- The arrival of the teenager -- Year zero and the teenager triumphant.