Despite what liberal critics say, Michael Jordan is the true heir to the radical legacy of Muhammad Ali. I love sex and I love men, but the only ones who ever ask me out are married. A welter of new titles devoted to American teenagers appeared this year, ranging from pulp fiction to sociology to self-help. The boom is no surprise, given the 31 million teens now alive in America. But despite all this shiny new adolescent media, it's still hard to hear actual teen voices.
Teenagers are the sector of the population most looked at and least listened to.
And today's teens do have new stories to tell. They are working more hours at part-time jobs, including during the school year, than they did two decades ago. Instead, author Thomas Hine offers an engaging, if contrived, history of teenagers in America from Puritan days to the present. Before 1900, adolescence concluded when boys and girls matured physically. A century ago, girls menstruated at an average age of 15.