This is an important work of detailed quantitive, qualitative and experimental research that reveals a great deal about how young people between the age of 18-24 view the political landscape in the United States.Only 17% of this age range in the US identify strongly with either of the main parties. Young people there and elsewhere are increasingly dissatisfied with mainstream parties and are seeking alternative forms of expression and organisation.

This book sets out to understand why a once angry generation of highly politicised young people in the sixties and seventies has changed into something less radical and visible today.

It examines why young people choose not to be involved in mainstream politics, and what they think of it. The authors destroy the myth that young people are apathetic. They remind us that apathy takes work to produce and is a form of conscious activity. More importantly they remind us too that to the extent that young people see the political world as being impervious to any change, it may be rational for them to opt out of it entirely. If nothing you can do within the projected political system will make any difference, it can be a logical decision to do nothing within it and find ways of changing things in other ways. A starting point is to define politics as everyday lived experience perhaps.

There is an undeniable withdrawal from partisan politics and this book, from within the different culture of the US, makes nevertheless, many transferable observations. Its methods could usefully be applied in the British context as politicians scratch their heads at the problem of re engaging with young people. The media and the market don't want these things.

In order to be engaged people must have the imagination which enables them to connect their everyday experiences with larger political events. In order to create meaning for ourselves and an identity we need to feel ourselves to be active agents able to negotiate our daily activities with the larger social structures. To be part of the picture you need to have extensive interaction with the wider world through reading,talking, learning, exchanging ideas, exploring. These processes of course also convey a sense of self worth, identity and empowerment.

In a highly marketised and media emblazoned culture, with increasingly mechanistic concepts of learning and mass youth unemployment, young people endure various forms of isolation and alienation which actively discourage democratic participation and the critical questioning that underpins political discourse. Consistent studies have shown that young people who are less likely to vote are more economically alienated. Many commentators have demonstrated how young people are targeted as consumers and their sense of self and development is moulded by market brands and lifestyles.Children are socialised into being savvy consumers from an early age. Young people increasingly have to work to see themselves through school and university. Work and social networking and consumer related efforts compete as never before for young peoples time.

The authors find that young people if they are Republican minded distrust political leaders, whereas Democrat inclined young people are concerned more about the progress of issues which they see as problematic within a distrustful political system. But like non aligned young people they distrust most the sources of information through the media about politics. The most popular form of political education turns out to be the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart a blend of satire and journalism about current affairs. Apparently this is extremely popular in the US amongst young people.

Differences between parties are conceptualised widely among young people as differences between brands of commodities,there is a style or demeanour associated with the Democrats or Republicans,just as there is with McDonalds or Starbucks. As the authors say For a generation that has grown up entirely in the world where parties, politicians,and policies have been sold like soap, opting out from politics is no more consequential a decision that one to avoid pop music or shop at The Gap Attachment to a party is superficial, saying no more about an individual than the clothes they wear.

The commoditisation of politics has a lotto answer for. We have to get back to face to face dialogue with young peopleto highlight the profound ideological differences between plans for change, andmore importantly to find new ways of appreciating their strengths and theirlegitimate rights and demands. Politicians should stop trying to sell and startlistening.