Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF P L AY • FA L L 2 0 1 7
claims about the role of structure and con- bedroom autonomy in America. His
straints in enjoyable play activities seem investigation is as deep as it is broad, situ-
difficult to dispute, though readers’ opin- ating the birth of teen bedroom culture
ions may be mixed regarding whether Play within the context of “the rise of mod-
Anything really revolutionizes the ideas of ern capitalism and the sweeping social,
play and fun as its preface promises to do. demographic, and cultural changes that
Whether the reader accepts all the book’s emerged in its wake” (p. 3). The first two
claims or not, though, Bogost’s arguments chapters chart a narrative in which teen
provide an experience that is—dare I say bedrooms shifted from sites of “charac-
it—fun to navigate. ter building, intellectual growth, spiritual
awareness, and personal responsibil-
—James D. Ivory, Virginia Polytechnic ity” to spaces of “self-reliance, property
Institute, Blacksburg, VA ownership, and personal autonomy” (pp.
12, 40). Reid points out that, in some
respects, the narrative shift from spiritual
to social-scientific rationales for children
Get Out of My Room!: A History having rooms of their own was “offering
of Teen Bedrooms in America old wine in new bottles” (p. 40). But he
Jason Reid effectively illustrates the overall secular-
Chicago: The University of Chicago ization of approaches to teen bedroom
Press, 2017. Acknowledgments, autonomy.
introduction, conclusion, notes, From there, chapter 3 includes a
bibliography, and index. 320 pp. $45.00 lively discussion of the consumer culture’s
cloth. ISBN: 9780226409214 impulse to individualize teen bedrooms
vis-à-vis the décor-industrial complex.
Jason Reid’s Get Out of My Room: A His- Chapter 4 covers the social acceptance and
tory of Teen Bedrooms in America is a near ubiquity of having a room of one’s
comprehensive and engaging study that own in the post–World War II period.
accomplishes what all historical writing Noteworthy here is Reid’s deft treatment
aims for but which it so seldom achieves. It of class in his narrative. Nevertheless, he
illuminates its subject matter while simul- maintains, mostly convincingly, that teen
taneously enriching the reader’s under- bedroom autonomy was more culturally
standing of the broader historical periods than economically based.
in which it contextualizes Reid’s analysis. Chapter 5 illustrates the shift to do-
Get Out of My Room is a worthwhile addi- it-yourself bedroom decoration, while
tion to the existing historiography in its chapter 6 delves into the evolution of
own right as well as an excellent reference the teen bedroom as multimedia center.
point for twentieth-century U.S. social and Reid’s approach here is especially innova-
cultural history. tive, discussing audiovisual technology’s
Reid, however, reaches beyond twentieth-century advancement concur-
the twentieth century and delves into rent with the evolution of teen bedroom
the nineteenth-century origins of teen culture. For example, the section on gam-
Book Reviews 119