THE UNCOMMITTED: Alienated Youth in American Society

by Kenneth Keniston ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 10, 1965

Alienation is as old as industry. What Harvard psychologist Keniston sees as new about that state of exterior exile is that young men today--specifically twelve young Harvard students with whom he worked for a three-year period--""choose"" societal limbo, for better or for worse, in rebellion against the unrewarding adult world of our technological society. His study of boys scarred by overweening mothers and fathers absent in body or spirit, the walking wounded of the American middle class, leads him to a critique of contemporary American institutions in which, with the clear insight few social scientists today have been able to muster, he reveals the close connections between child-rearing, childhood, jobs, play and social life and the malaise of alienation. But this is not merely symptomatic of an ailing civilization, Keniston argues. By its presence it is also a trenchant revelation of where the cure may lie. He does not say how we will accomplish the revolutionary goal of restoring to our lives all the possibilities for releasing the thwarted humanism of the alienated. But with much good sense, historical perspective, energy of idea and language, Keniston has brought the crisis into focus. A highly recommended primary text.

Pub Date: Nov. 10, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1965

Categories: NONFICTION