In Costa Rica, the study of youth has not only been undertaken by different disciplines (such as sociology and anthropology) but has also contributed to shaping interdisciplinary fields (such as communication and cultural studies). However, as noted by the editors of La inolvidable edad, “Historical studies on young people privilege the post-1950 period, which was when the globalized youth culture that currently prevails began to take shape” (p. 17). Thus the book draws a bridge between Costa Rican youth from both halves of the twentieth century in a way that allows each chapter to resonate with the others.
The chapter by Iván Molina Jiménez analyzes the debates and policies between 1913 and 1953 regarding access to public education as well as the democratization of education as part of a proposal for extending rights. These debates and policies are framed within the world economic crisis of the 1930s and US...
