Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Boom!: Voices of the Sixties, by Tom Brokaw

Book 13

After leaving his full time NBC gig, Tom Brokaw moved on from The Greatest Generation to write a history of their children.

You want to hear something insane?  I have had Baby Boomer rants in the faces of both of my parents in the last couple of years.  (Self-righteous, self-absorbed, squandered potential, blah blah blah).  And my parents, generally, agreed with me.  They didn't disagree, anyway.  I hate when that happens.

Anyway, the book.  It is written in the form of character profiles - the stories of the players big and small.  Heavy on the Vietnam.  I appreciated that he included some interviews and observations with a crowd a bit older - Joan Didion was particularly memorable for me.  And Colin Powell.  And Jim Lovell, who heard about the Tet Offensive and hoped the war wouldn't cut into the budget for the space program.  Awesome.

Brokaw didn't change my mind about the Boomers.  I like that he didn't seem to be trying to do so.

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