1. Seabrook, Jeremy, Mother and Son, a Memoir (New York, 1980), 100–1.Google Scholar The “embourgeoisement” theory can be seen in Zweig, F., The Worker in an Affluent Society: Family Life and Industry (London, 1961),Google Scholar esp. pt. 9. The best demolition of the theory remains Goldthorpe, J.H. and Lockwood, David et al. , The Affluent Worker in the Class Structure (Cambridge, 1969).Google Scholar For the breakdown of “traditional” working class culture, see Wilmott, Peter and Young, Michael, Family and Kinship in East London (London, 1957)Google Scholar, and for the impact of this on youth. Wilmott, Peter, Adolescent Boys of East London (London, 1966)Google Scholar, esp. chap. 1. For a recent discussion of the working class in post-war British society, see Clarke, John, Critcher, Chas and Johnson, Richard, eds., Working Class Culture: Studies in History and Theory (London, 1979), 14–17,Google Scholar 27–34 & 238ff, as well as Graham Murdock and Robin McCron, “Youth and Class: the Career of a Confusion,” in Munghum & Pearson, chap. 1.

2. Hoggart, Richard. The Uses of Literacy (New York, 1970).Google Scholar

3. For a review of Working Papers in Cultural Studies, the journal of the Centre, and its importance for American scholars, see Buhle, Paul in Radical History Review 19 (Winter 1978–1979), 171–3.Google Scholar Recent historical work of the Centre can be found in Critcher & Johnson, eds., Working Class Culture.

4. Yinger, J. Milton, “Contraculture and Subculture,” American Sociological Review 25 (10 1960),CrossRefGoogle Scholar esp. 625–7.

5. Fine, Gary Alan and Kleinman, Sherrvl, “Rethinking Subculture: an Interactionist Analysis.” American Journal of Sociology 85 (07 1979),CrossRefGoogle Scholar esp. 1–4; Clarke, Michael, “On the Concept of ‘Sub-culture,’” British Journal of Sociology 25 (12 1974), 429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Clarke goes even further than this, and suggests (p. 428) that if the term were new, sociologists would probably reject it as worthless.

6. Roth, Günther, The Social Democrats in Imperial Germany, A Study in Working Class Isolation and National Integration (Totowa NJ, 1963)Google Scholar, esp. chap. 9, “The Social Democratic Subculture and the Dominant Culture.” Vernon Lidtke has challenged Roth, claiming that his conceptualization of the dominant culture implies a coherence in Imperial German society that is questionable at best: see Lidtke. “Social Democratic Cultural Organizations in Imperial Germany.” paper presented at the annual convention of the American Historical Association, Chicago. 1974. Although there is no space to develop the argument here, the same charge can be levelled against the use of the concept “dominant culture” in works presently under review.

7. Mclntosh, Mary, “The Homosexual Role,” Social Problems 16 (Fall 1968), 182–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weeks, Jeffrey, “Movements of Affirmation: Sexual Meanings and Homosexual Identities,” Radical History Review 20 (Spring/Summer 1979), 164–79CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Trumbach, Randolph, “London's Sodomites: Homosexual Behavior and Western Culture in the 18th Century,” Journal of Social History 11 (Fall 1977), 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Tholfsen, Trygve, Working Class Radicalism in Mid-Victorian England (New York, 1977).Google ScholarBarrow, Logie, “Socialism in Eternity: Plebeian Spiritualists 1853–1914,” History Workshop Journal 9 (Spring 1980). 17–69Google Scholar, csp. 63. See also Gray, Robert Q., The Labour Aristocracy in Victorian Edinbiurgh (Oxford. 1976)Google Scholar, and Crossick, Geoffrey, An Artisan Elite in Victorian Society: Kentish London 1840–1880 (London. 1978)Google Scholar. Gray develops the notion of occupational subcultures, while implied in Crossick's analysis is the concept of “stratum” or “status” subcultures.

9. Ariès, Philippe, Centuries of Childhood: a Social History of Family Life, trans, by Baldick, Robert (New York, 1962)Google Scholar. Two of the more important recent studies of youth in history, suggesting that youth do indeed have some say in the making of their own history, are Gillis, John. Youth and History: Fradition and Change in European Age Relations, 1770–present (New York, 1974)Google Scholar, and Kett, Joseph F., Rites of Passage: Adolescence in America 1790 to the Present (New York, 1977).Google Scholar

10. Smith, Steven R., “The London Apprentices as Seventeenth Century Adolescents.” Past and Present 61 (11 1973). 149–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gillis, 28–31. The work of Natalie Davis is also of particular importance here. esp. “The Reasons of Misrule,” Society and Culture in Early Modern Fiance (Stanford, 1975). 97–123. See also Thompson, E.P., “Rough Music: le charivari anglais,” Annales E.S C. 27 (03–April 1972), 285–312.Google Scholar

11. May, Margaret, “Innocence and Experience: the Evolution of the Concept of Juvenile Delinquency in the Mid-nineteenth Century.” Victorian Studies 17 (09 1973),Google Scholar esp. 7, 19: and Tobias, J.I.. Urban Crime in Victorian England (New York. 1972).Google Scholar Gangs, each with their own particular style, could also be found in New York: see Kett, 88–93. Although it is not the purpose of this essay to focus on American youth, it should be briefly noted that few studies approach youth in post-war America in the manner of these English works. In part this is due to the overriding emphasis placed on both middle class counter-cultures and on ethnic subcultures. There are some exceptions: Marsh, Peter and Campbell, Anne, “The Youth Gangs of New York and Chicago go into Business,” New Society, 12 (10 1978). 67–9Google Scholar, and “The Sex Boys on their own Turf.” New Society, 19 (October 1978), 133–5; also the articles in Radical America, November 1969 and September/October 1970.

12. Dunae, Patrick A.. “Penny Dreadfuls: Late Nineteenth Century Boys' Literature and Crime.” Victorian Studies 22 (Winter 1979). 133–50.Google Scholar The process was similar in Germany: Fullerton, Ronald A., “Toward a Commercial Popular Culture in Germany: the Development of Pamphlet Fiction, 1871–1914.” Journal of Social History 12 (Summer 1979), 489–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13. Michael Blanch, “Imperialism. Nationalism and Organized Youth.” in Clarke. Critcher and Johnson, 103.

14. Waters, Chris. “Robert Rlatchford and Working Class Cultare in the 1890s.” paper presented at the annual meeting of Midwest Vietorian Studies Association. Bloomington. 03 1980, 18–9.Google Scholar

15. Gillis, John, “The Evolution of Juvenile Delinquency in England 1890–1914,” Past and Present 67 (05 1975). esp. p. 122CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Blanch, 106–7, and Thompson, Paul, The Edwardians: the Remaking of British Society (London, 1977), 70–1.Google Scholar For leisure, class and social control: Donajgrodzki, A.P.. ed. Social Control in Nineteenth Century Britain (London, 1977)Google Scholar, and Bailey, Peter. Leisure and Class in Victorian England: Rational Recreation and the Contest for Control 1830–1885 (London. 1978)Google Scholar

16. Russell, Charles F.B.. Manchester Boys: Sketches of Manchester Lads at Work and Play, 2nd ed. (Manchester, 1913), 48.Google Scholar

17. Ibid., 88; see also Jones, Gareth Stedman. “Working Class Culture and Working Class Politics in London 1870–1900: Notes on the Remaking of a Working Class.” Journal of Social History 7 (Summer, 1974). 460–508CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Senelick, Laurence, “Politics as Entertainment: Victorian Music Hall Songs,” Victorian Studies 19 (12 1975). 149–80.Google Scholar

18. Cohen, Albert, Delinquent Boys: the Culture of the Gang (Glencoe Ill., 1955).Google Scholar esp. chap.

19. The case studies in Resistance through Rituals are quite brief, and often shortened versions of lengthier essays. See the following Occasional Stencilled Papers distributed by the Centre: Dick Hebdidge. “The Style of the Mods.” #20: Tony Jefferson, “The Teds: a Political Resurrection.” #22; and John Clarke, “Skinheads and the Study of Youth Culture,” #23. These studies tangentially address the problems raised above. but still not in an entirely convincing manner.

20. The discussions of the Mods are somewhat more specific on these points. The average Mod, according to the survey of the 43 “Margate Offenders,” earned eleven pounds per week (1964). and was a semi-skilled, more particularly an office, worker or department store clerk who had leit school at the age of fifteen (Hall & Jefferson, 91). Willis offers a brief occupational background of his bike boys (12). but the evidence is scanty and its importance is not addressed In fact, it is rare for any age or occupational specificity to be developed in these works.

21. Frith, Simon, The Sociology of Rock (London, 1978), 51Google Scholar; for an excellent statement of the importance of a “production of culture” approach, see DiMaggio, Paul and Hirsch, Paul, “Production Organizations in the Arts.” in Peterson, Richard, ed., The Production of Culture (Beverly Hills, 1976). 73–90Google Scholar; for the production of rock in particular, see Frith. 75–156.

22. For a particularly good analysis of youthful opposition to authority, and the creation of youth culture external to the spectacular subcultures described in these works, see Willis, Paul E., Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs (Farnborough, 1977)Google Scholar, esp. chap. 2, “Elements of a Culture.”

23. Fine and Kleinman, 6.

24. Milton Yinger suggests that much confusion surrounds the term “subculture” because of its use as a substitute for the term “role” (p. 627). The notion of working people adopting a particular role as a means of negotiating the outside world has received little historical attention, but see the stimulating suggestions by Bailey, Peter, “Will the Real Bill Banks Please Stand Up? Towards a Role Analysis of Mid-Victorian Working Class Respectability,” Journal of Social History 12 (Spring 1979), 336–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25. Hoggart, 203–5.

26. The best analysis ot these problems at a theoretical level can be found in the conclusion to Profane Culture, and in Paul Corrigan and Simon Frith, “The Politics of Youth Culture,” Hall & Jefferson. 231–9. See also Thompson, Paul, “Youth Culture and Youth Politics in Britain,” Radicai America 13 (03–April 1979), 53–65.Google Scholar The romanticization of which I complain here is also to be encountered in a more recent study of youth cultures, Brake, Mike, The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures (London, 1979).Google Scholar

27. See Williams, Raymond, “Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory.” New Left Review 82 (11–December 1973). 10.Google Scholar