The Cult of Youth

In this major new study James F. Stark provides the first historical account of the most dominant ideas practices and material cultures associated with anti-ageing and rejuvenation in modern Britain. With a focus on the interwar period his study uncovers the role of the commercial world in influencing attitudes towards ageing and youth. Stark argues that the technologies of anti-ageing their commercialisation and their consumption made rejuvenation a possible and desirable aim in a period of socio-political instability mechanised conflict and extending lifespans. Ultimately Stark offers an innovative historical account which draws together bodies gender science medicine advertising and ageing and shows how the quest for youth was transformed by social anxieties about an ageing population and economic crisis.