| A Tribe Apart: A Journey Into the Heart of American Adolescence Contributor(s): Hersch, Patricia (Author) |
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ISBN: 034543594X ISBN-13: 9780345435941 Publisher: Ballantine Group OUR PRICE: $15.30 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 1999 Annotation: For three fascinating, disturbing years, writer Patricia Hersch journeyed inside a world that is as familiar as our own children and yet as alien as some exotic culture -- the world of adolescence. As a silent, attentive partner, she followed eight teenagers in the typically American town of Reston, Virginia, listening to their stories, observing their rituals, watching them fulfill their dreams and enact their tragedies. What she found was that America's teens have fashioned a fully defined culture that adults neither see nor imagine -- a culture of unprecedented freedom and baffling complexity, a culture with rules but no structure, values but no clear morality, codes but no consistency. Is it society itself that has created this separate teen community? Resigned to the attitude that adolescents simply live in "a tribe apart", adults have pulled away, relinquishing responsibility and supervision, allowing the unhealthy behaviors of teens to flourish. Ultimately, this rift between adults and teenagers robs both generations of meaningful connections, for everyone's world is made richer and more challenging by having adolescents in it. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Sociology - General - Family & Relationships | Life Stages - Adolescence - History | United States - 20th Century |
| Dewey: 305.235 |
| LCCN: 99090233 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5.54" W x 8.27" (0.76 lbs) 418 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1950-1999 - Chronological Period - 1990's - Topical - Adolescence/Coming of Age - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: For three fascinating, disturbing years, writer Patricia Hersch journeyed inside a world that is as familiar as our own children and yet as alien as some exotic culture--the world of adolescence. As a silent, attentive partner, she followed eight teenagers in the typically American town of Reston, Virginia, listening to their stories, observing their rituals, watching them fulfill their dreams and enact their tragedies. What she found was that America's teens have fashioned a fully defined culture that adults neither see nor imagine--a culture of unprecedented freedom and baffling complexity, a culture with rules but no structure, values but no clear morality, codes but no consistency. Is it society itself that has created this separate teen community? Resigned to the attitude that adolescents simply live in "a tribe apart," adults have pulled away, relinquishing responsibility and supervision, allowing the unhealthy behaviors of teens to flourish. Ultimately, this rift between adults and teenagers robs both generations of meaningful connections. For everyone's world is made richer and more challenging by having adolescents in it. |