1 of 1 copy available
Boom! One minute it was Ike and the man in the grey flannel suit, and the next minute it was time to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” While Americans were walking on the moon, Americans were dying in Vietnam. Nothing was beyond question, and there were far fewer answers than before.
Published as the fortieth anniversary of 1968 approaches, Boom! gives us what Brokaw sees as a virtual reunion of some members of “the class of ’68,” offering wise and moving reflections and frank personal remembrances about people’s lives during a time of high ideals and profound social, political, and individual change. What were the gains, what were the losses? Who were the winners, who were the losers? As they look back decades later, what do members of the Sixties generation think really mattered in that tumultuous time, and what will have meaning going forward?
Race, war, politics, feminism, popular culture, and music are all explored here, and we learn from a wide range of people about their lives. Tom Brokaw explores how members of this generation have gone on to bring activism and a Sixties mindset into individual entrepreneurship today. We hear stories of how this formative decade has led to a recalibrated perspective–on business, the environment, politics, family, our national existence.
Remarkable in its insights, profoundly moving, wonderfully written and reported, this revealing portrait of a generation and of an era, and of the impact of the 1960s on our lives today, lets us be present at this reunion ourselves, and join in these frank conversations about America then, now, and tomorrow.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
November 6, 2007 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781588366474
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781588366474
- File size: 5246 KB
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
October 22, 2007
There’s less heroism in Brokaw’s profiles of the baby boom cohort than there was in his salute to The Greatest Generation, but there’s still plenty of drama. Almost everyone the author interviews (famous boomers like Arlo Guthrie, Hillary Clinton and Karl Rove along with many unsung contemporaries) describes a personal journey through the upheavals of the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, women’s liberation, the counterculture, the rise of the New Left or the birth of the New Right. Callow students became radicalized, restless housewives forged careers, musicians spiraled into addiction, disgusted erstwhile liberals trekked rightward, everyone—except Dick Cheney, Brokaw mentions—questioned authority. Unlike Brokaw’s celebratory and elegiac previous book, this one is steeped in retrospective ambivalence; conservatives look back on the era with disdain, and even unreconstructed lefties feel misgivings about its excesses. As an NBC correspondent, Brokaw was a keen (if careful nonparticipant) observer of the ’60s and contributes his own neutral but engaging gloss on developments, along with personal recollections of everyone from Bobby Kennedy to Hunter S. Thompson. He may not always know what to make of it all, but Brokaw’s profiles do convey the decade’s diverse experiences, its roiling energies and its centrality in the making of modern America. Photos. -
January 28, 2008
Brokaw's The Greatest Generation
examined an era that brought America together, while Boom!
considers some of the most divisive years in American history. Inviting listeners to a virtual reunion of characters from the 1960s (which he loosely defines as the years between 1963 and 1972), this compendium of interviews and anecdotes is loosely held together by Brokaw's own biographical time line and opinions. His warm, familiar voice is still filled with genuine curiosity, which listeners will find hard to resist. On audio, Brokaw's diction becomes a little rough around the edges, occasionally letting words run together. Brokaw, who has been a guest in our living rooms for as long as many people can remember, is still welcome to report on the world as he sees it. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 22).
-