This text examines different approaches in the social sciences to the analysis of problems of youth and generations. The book, a republication of a text from 1956, includes several new chapters.

I: Age Groups and Social Structure: The Problem; II: Some Types of Age Groups; III: Age Groups in Nonkinship (Universalistic) Societies; IV: Specialization and the Structure of Age Groups; V: Age Groups in Familistic Societies; VI: The Functions of Age Groups in the Social System; VII: Archetypal Patterns of Youth; VIII: Contemporary Student Rebellions-Intellectual Rebellion and Generational Conflict; IX: Youth, Generational Consciousness, and Historical Change