This illuminating new book embeds our understanding of the youth question within a historical context. It shows how the ideas of past political action, in conjunction with the diverse paradigms of social science disciplines, have shaped modern conceptions of the youth question. This relationship between the political and the academic is then explored through a detailed examination of contemporary debates about youth, in areas such as; transitions, education, crime policy and criminology, consumption and youth culture.From this analysis the book is able to show how the youth question in late modernity is being shaped. This important text includes: a historical overview of the making of modern youth, identifying major changes that took place over three centuries; examples of how political and academic responses construct youth as a social problem; and an evaluation of the impact of social change in late modernity on our understanding of the youth question and the everyday lives of the young.The book concludes by suggesting that in contemporary understandings of the youth question significant differences exist between the political and the academic. Major challenges exist if this gap is to be addressed and a new public social science needs to emerge that reconstitutes debates about youth within a form of communicative democracy. "Understanding Youth in Late Modernity" is key reading for students and academics interested in the historical conception of the youth problem, its evolution throughout modernity and endeavours to find a solution.