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Semester 2

Youth and Modernity, c.1880-1970 (ECSH10070)

Subject

Economic and Social History

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 History courses at grade B or above, and please note that we will only consider courses with a specific focus on History (not including History of Art) towards these pre-requisites. We will only consider University/College level courses. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

This course examines the ways in which youth and shifting concepts associated with it (such as childhood, adolescence and the phenomenon of the teenager) has been interpreted and experienced in the twentieth century. The course focuses primarily on Britain but also explores the wider global contexts of empire and decolonisation, migration, war in Europe and americanisation; the British experience is compared and contrasted with that of other locations.

Course Description

Although a significant proportion of the western population has consisted of those under 21, the study of childhood and youth has often been regarded as a marginal area of social history. Over the last 20 years, however, historians have produced a wealth of research which demonstrates that the idea of childhood was crucial to the development of modern welfare states and to modern concepts of identity, sexuality and selfhood. Furthermore, children and young people have been reclaimed as historical actors and even agents of change. The twentieth century has been labelled 'the century of the child' in that recognition of children's specific needs, rights and developments has been a central component of both official and unofficial discourse. However, a preoccupation with the 'adolescent' or 'teenager' as an object of social concern, anxiety and moral panic has also been apparent. As well as examining and unpacking this anxiety, we will consider debates relating to youth culture, resistance and agency. We will consider, throughout, the ways in which ideas about class, gender, race and age have structured adult interventions and youthful experience. The role of the law, medicine, religion and education will be explored at various points. We will also assess the problem of 'finding' the 'real' child in the archive because his/her traces are so often transitory. Extensive use will be made of a wide variety of primary sources (visual and textual) including film and other visual images, official reports and files, newspapers, magazines and personal testimonies. Topics covered include the discovery of adolescence; health, welfare and psychology; leisure and popular culture; evacuation and the disruption of wartime; juvenile delinquency, the teenager and youth subculture.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a History or HCA exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in two 3rd year History courses each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. This includes courses in Economic History and Scottish History. Enrolment in a third course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the January Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course