I read this for research purposes. The book was far more academic in nature than I expected, and an especially slow read through the first half. I was hoping for a more general overview of American youth through this period with information about slang and culture, but the data cited throughout almost exclusively pertains to college students, and being academic, was pretty darn dry and repetitious. The content near the back of the book became more interesting as it delved into the subjects of sex, the popularity of "petting", the importance of dancing, and how other societal elements remained stagnant, such as racial bigotry, which stayed consistent along regional lines. In all, not a useless read, but it didn't live up to expectations, either. ( )

I'll say first of all that this IS an interesting book. But seriously... it's too long!
Many parts of the book are full of repetitions, concepts repeated over and over again, unnecessarily, so much so that many times I came to the point of thinking: "I don't believe it. She's really saying it AGAIN," and was tempted to just skip the part. I never actually did it, but still...

The first part was the more interesting for me. Well, I suppose that people who read about social history of family will know everything in here, but because I've never read about the subject, everything was new to me. Here's where the change in the relation between men and women is addressed quite in detail, a change that went on for nearly one century before coming to the revolution of the Twenties. The author explains the way and the reasons why a change inside the couple was possible and desirable at this time in history, and why in the Twenties relationships became more companionable, more intimate, more based on trust and sharing. Why and how this affected the way parents treated children, an so why in the Twenties young people had so much freedom in comparison with all the generations that came before.
There are quite e few repetition here too, but because I was so engaged in the subject matter, I didn't really mind.

The part about the discussion that went on in the Twenties about young in general and young women in particular, though interesting, was a bit too abstract in my opinion and went on too much.
Bu the real trial for me was the middle part.
Here the author addresses campus life. Really, I nearly couldn't stand it. She repeats the same three or four concepts over and over and over and over again, so that it might have been interesting the first time, but because of the obsessive repetition I just couldn't stand it. And honestly, from what I read, I don't think campus life was so interesting to devote so much time and words to it.

The last part is what I expected the book to talk about before I read it: actual behaviour of young people in the Twenties and why they acted like that. Why young women started bobbing their hair, why they started shedding layers and layers of dressing, why they started using cosmetics. How young men reacted. What young people considered inappropriate as opposed to what they parents considered inappropriate.
I really enjoyed this part. Shame that it was so short.

So on the whole I would recommend the book to anyone interested in social history, especially of the Twenties. Just keep a good stock of patience at hand... or prepare yourself to skipping quite a few pages. ( )