The collective experience of youth varies widely, not least according to class, race, gender, and geographic region. The shared experiences of impoverished urban youth contrast sharply from those of college-bound young people growing up in gated, suburban communities. However, even across this spectrum of differences, there are many common elements to being a young person today: limited employability and political participation, requisite education, submission to parental control and surveillance by parents and the state. In this class, we will review the history of the development of the category "youth" to describe first a stage of development, then a group identity which captured the commonalities described above as well as the distinctions between this group and the rest of society.

American culture is fascinated with youth: what are they wearing? what is that music they are listening to? why are they rebelling against authorities? In other words, what makes them act so strange? We will examine these issues, the us/them divisions that underlie them, and go deeper still into the minds and the lifestyles of subcultural groups, the social "problems" of youth, and issues that are uniquely oppressive to young people. We also study the various ways that young people corral their limited political power to affect social change both nationally and locally.