Melanie Tebbutt 
Being boys 
Youth, leisure and identity in the inter-war years

This original and fresh approach to the emotions of adolescence focuses on the leisure lives of working-class boys and young men in the inter-war years. Being Boys challenges many stereotypes about their behaviour. It offers new perspectives on familiar and important themes in interwar social and cultural history, ranging from the cinema and mass consumption to boys’ clubs, personal advice pages, street cultures, dancing, sexuality, mobility and the body. It draws on many autobiographies and personal accounts and is particularly distinctive in offering an unusual insight into working-class adolescence through the teenage diaries of the author’s father, which are interwoven with the book’s broader analysis of contemporary leisure developments. Being Boys will be of interest to scholars and students across the humanities and social sciences and is also relevant to those teaching and studying in the fields of child development, education, and youth and community studies.

Table of Content

Introduction
1. Looking at youth
2. Ordinary boys and masculine men
3. Bodies and appearance
4. Sex and sentiment
5. Seeking advice
6. Dancing and gender
7. Movement, motion and street space
8. Being a boy and becoming a man
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Melanie Tebbutt is Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University