Social history of “golden youth”: social and historical issues of genesis

The article is an attempt to brief sociological analysis of the social and historical genesis and transformation of the phenomenon of the "golden youth". Based on the methodology of "social history" as the key areas of modern social sciences author explores general and specific features, as well as historically accidental and erroneous to characterize and further scientific analysis of such a complex variety of elites. It is a scientific novelty of the research as integral analyst of social history "golden youth" so far not carried out. Moments appearance and social activities "golden youth" fragmented history, but at the same time go back centuries in European antiquity and the history of the ancient East, allowing reject common version of the appearance of this phenomenon in Europe in the XVIII century. The author believes that a number of eminent personalities of each era can be attributed to people from the "golden youth" category. It artists and musicians (A. Durer, WA Mozart and others), philosophers and scientists (Prince Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha, B. Pascal, T. More, G.V. Leibniz, Darwin, etc.) and writers (Goethe, Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire), public and political figures (Alexander of Macedon, O. Bismarck), in the XX century - the famous "Cambridge Spies", which shows the maximum value of non-random "golden youth" for the social and political history.