ADOLESCENCEthat the changing norms and institutions that shape
adolescence be identified, and correspondingly,
that the changing nature of adolescent semiautonomy
be recognized. Within this frame of life-stage analy-
sis, social scientists have studied the historical
permanence of adolescence and the factors that
have circumscribed this phase of life, marking its
beginning and end.
‘‘Adolescence’’ in historical time. Initial ef-
forts to interpret the social history of youth con-
cluded that adolescence did not exist before the
modernization of societies (modernization refers
to a constellation of societal changes thought to
mark a break with previous forms of social organi-
zation: rapid technological changes, the emergence
of market economies, urbanization, industrializa-
tion, the decline of agricultural life, secularization,
broad-based political participation, the use of cur-
rency, and the spread of science [Kleiman 1998]).
Norbert Elias (1994) suggested that children and
adults became increasingly distinct in their behav-
iors as etiquette became more widespread and
refined, particularly with the collapse of feudal
societies. Indeed, Elias implied that the life span
recapitulates the history of manners, an instance
of Haeckel’s biogenetic law.
More focused on youth was Philippe Ariés’s
path-setting Centuries of Childhood (1962). Drawing
on a diverse array of evidence—including art his-
tory, linguistics, and literature—Ariés argued that
in medieval times children merged directly into
adult roles starting at around seven years of age.
Medieval society distinguished between adults and
nonadults, but, in the latter category, distinctions
were not maintained between children and adoles-
cents. Most medieval and premodern children did
not attend school, but were incorporated into
adult life as quickly as possible by way of daily
interactions with their elders in tightly knit com-
munities. The few youth who did attend school
remained integrated in adult society by way of a
vocational curriculum designed largely to train
lawyers and the clergy. According to Ariés, begin-
ning as early as the sixteenth century, a wide range
of factors—from Cartesianism to technological
advancements—led to the prolongation of child-
hood and the emergence of adolescence as a life
phase. Youth were to be educated in age-segregat-
ed settings according to curricula that were less
concerned with vocational training. With this pro-
longation of education and segregation from the
adult world, adolescence emerged as a distinct
age-graded identity.Like Hall’s Adolescence, Ariés’s work was read
by a receptive audience (Ben-Amos 1995). The
prominent functionalist Kingsley Davis (1944) had
already argued that the transmission of adult norms
and values took less time in ‘‘simpler’’ societies.
Similarly, in his highly influential The Lonely Crowd,
David Riesman (1950) argued that children could
assume adult roles in tradition-directed societies
(see also Eisenstadt 1956). But Ariés was unique in
his use of the historical record, and his work was a
point of departure for the social history of child-
ren and adolescence that subsequently emerged in
the 1970s (e.g., Demos 1970; Gillis 1974). Accord-
ingly, some commentators maintained that adoles-
cence was ‘‘discovered’’ or ‘‘invented’’ in the eight-
eenth century, as shown in part by more precise
distinctions among words like ‘‘child,’’ ‘‘adoles-
cent,’’ and ‘‘youth’’ (e.g., Musgrove 1964). Yet a
linguistic analysis says little about the historical
permanence of adolescence as a set of transitional
experiences marked by semiautonomy between
childhood and adulthood. Indeed, many of Ariés’s
arguments have been seriously contested, includ-
ing his description of education in medieval and
Renaissance Europe and his lack of appreciation
for the semiautonomous roles youth often played
in these societies as servants or apprentices (e.g.,
Davis 1975).The guiding principle of most contemporary
social historical research is that adolescence re-
flects ever-changing values and societal structures,
encompassing demographic, political, economic,
and social realities. For example, Kett (1977) views
American adolescence as a set of behaviors im-
posed on youth beginning in the late nineteenth
century. This imposition was justified by ‘‘psycho-
logical laws’’ (e.g., the necessity of religious deci-
sion during adolescence) freighted with middle-
class concerns over the dangers of cities, immi-
grants, bureaucracies, and the pace of social change.
Not surprisingly, social historians have detected
‘‘different adolescences’’ in diverse settings de-
fined by historical time and place.Reflecting a continuing engagement with Ariés,
a focal point of social historical research has been
the experience of adolescence before, during, and
after the emergence of industrialism. An overview