Transnational Histories of Youth in the Twentieth Century

Transnational Histories of Youth in the Twentieth Century examines the emergence of youth and young people as a central historical force in the global history of the twentieth century. Each of the chapters considers the activities of young people from a transnational perspective, emphasizing their agency in the development of global interconnectedness by focusing on a variety of case studies that emphasize topics and regions that too often remain unconsidered. From backpacking in Europe to political activism in Africa, from Malaysian scouting for girls to Indian thresholds of marriage, from Argentine Zionism to Chinese revolution, the local practices and behaviors of the young engaged with world. Transnational Histories of Youth in the Twentieth Century is unique in that it explores the effect of transnationality on youth and of youth on transnationality. It reveals the activities, mobilities, and identities of youth to be a central component of globalization.

Richard Ivan Jobs is Professor of Modern European History at Pacific University in Oregon, USA. His recent publications include Riding the New Wave: Youth and Rejuvenation of France after the Second World War (2007), and a 2009 article in the American Historical Review, 'Youth Movements: Travel, Protest, and Europe in 1968', from his current book project Backpack Ambassadors: How Youth Travel Integrated Western Europe.

David M. Pomfret is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong, China. His publications include Youth and Empire: Trans-colonial Childhoods in British and French Asia (2015); Young People and the European City: Age Relations in Nottingham and Saint-Etienne (2004), and the collections Imperial Contagions (with Robert Peckham) (2013) and Diasporic Chineseness after the Rise of China (2013).