| Novels written for adolescents are one means by which adults have sought to pass along their values. Such novels have typically been strongly didactic; and, until recently, teachers and librarians were important intermediaries in their distribution. This study examines a random sample of thirty-six critically recommended novels published in the United States between 1946 and 1964. The values expressed in these novels were much more progressive than the historiography of novels written for adolescents or of the 1950s in general would lead one to expect.; This was particularly true in regard to gender. There were striking differences between books written for girls and those for boys, and the girls' books were more progressive than the boys' books. Books written for girls generally welcomed the increase in white-collar employment for women during these years, and encouraged their readers to seek careers. Books for boys, on the other hand, rejected the economic developments of the postwar years, which they saw as a threat to traditional masculine values. Similarly, girls' books stressed the importance of the unique self and the necessity for self-fulfillment, concepts that were virtually absent from the boys' books. And while romance was more important to girls' books than to boys', the girls' books generally did not represent romance as an all-consuming interest, and warned against letting romance overwhelm one's self.; In their treatment of racial and ethnic minorities, the books were liberal. Although two of them contained portrayals of African-Americans tainted by racism, they generally espoused an antiprejudice message. Only in dealing with issues of class were the books conservative. Given these findings, the view of 1950s “dominant culture” as uniformly conservative cannot be sustained. |
