Customer Reviews

Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today

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Right off let me say that if you missed the sixties, this book is still something you'll want to read. If, like myself, you came of age during that decade you will also find Boom more that worth the time to read.

Brokaw has a way of condensing the ideas he's trying to get the reader to engage. I found The Greatest Generation terribly revealing about my parent's generation. I suspect those born during the sixties and after will also find Boom's content interesting.

I was also impressed with the famous who agreed to be interviewed for this work. I have heard the following quip, "If you can remember the sixties you didn't experience it." Well, clearly for those Brokaw interviewed that isn't true.

Boom is logically organized and intelligently written. You can tell that Brokaw loves doing research and loves his subject.

The hogwash about how much money Brokaw has made and whether this effects his objectivity toward Cheney and others is a distraction. No one has ever challenged Brokaw's professionalism because he earns a lot of money. For some reason, being financially successful is a kiss of death in some individuals eyes.

Boom is a wonderful look at a time that truly is a defining era. There is America before the sixties and the America after the sixties and they aren't the same place. You'll want to read this one slowly and ponder what it says.

Peace from North Carolina

I'm writing this in the wake of an online chat with Brokaw where he was kind enough to answer some of my questions as well as those of other participants there. It was one short hour which simply flew by!.

Although I had the book in "traditional" form already, I got the Kindle version as well so I could share it with others tomorrow, along with the chat itself (I'd name the site but I don't know if that is allowed here)

As I already knew -but Brokaw reiterated in the chat - the book was a type of "virtual reunion" of people who'd lived through the Sixties and were open to revealing their thoughts and changes forty years after those pivotal years.

The book is aptly titled Boom! because there were true shock waves as major changes rippled quickly - and sometimes tore- through our culture. Brokaw focused on major areas such as feminism and the women's movement,politics (including the Democratic identity crisis), Vietnam, race relations and racism, assassinations, etc.

The famous, infamous and anonymous are interviewed or lend their voices to this book, making it more accessible, not at all dry and very lively. Brokaw noted that he wished he could have covered such topics as the Evangelical movement and the changes in journalism so if you get this book, please be aware that HE is aware of what was not covered. I think that including more areas might have watered down the book so I think this was a wise choice.

I think he did a superb job, especially with the format, including firsthand accounts from those who'd been in Vietnam as well as notable names like Gloria Steinem, Judy Collins (her albums seemed to be everywher and her songs were a backdrop to my days), Kris Kristofferson, Jann Wenner (of Rolling Stone magazine), Dick Gregory and many, many others.

He doesn't forget the tragedies of that time, either, and quotes both Dylan and Lennon in his opening to the book. If you are looking at a definitive book on the Sixties, you'll find a stance here that isn't decided about the final impact of those years. Even forty years later, the author writes that it will take longer to see the Sixties with perspective. Again, I agree.

As a member of the 60s generation, I couldn't put this book down, especially as as I fully agreed with one point made by Brokaw- that the Sixties "blindsided" us with quick and startling changes, from the variety of drugs available eveywhere to women's lib.

It is hard for me to understand how others see this time, the ones who didn't live through it, but I felt this book did a super job of encompassing many of the key events and it certainly set off waves of memories in my brain. I suggest you pick up a copy of this, sit down and let this author take you back in time. I got a shock when I saw the words "forty years ago" in print. It truly seems like only yesterday!

I am sad to say that I was disappointed By Tom Brokaw's "Boom." It is a long, ponderous, 611 page trip down memory lane to a virtual reunion of men and women who came of age in the '60s, and who offer a mishmash of views regarding their lives and times, then and now.

Some of their stories and recollections ring more credibly than others, but there is too little analysis from these personal accounts, especially by Brokaw, who wonders continually about the meaning of the riddle of the 60's, but provides no personal conclusions despite his ringside seat to the events, and all that has happened since. I was clearly expecting more.

Here's an example of what I mean. For all their magnificent accomplishments, the so called "greatest generation," were also the parents of the baby boomers. How, in fewer than 20 years, did their collective sense of duty, honor and patriotism diminish so greatly into a National epidemic of sex, drugs, rock and roll and lack of personal accountability among the Boomers? Were the WWII heroes great at taking orders and making war but not so good at parenting, or openly communicating with their children? Does this make the "greatest generation" less great? Brokaw's thesis could/should have begun there. What changed in the culture, and when did it happen, or why so suddenly?

I am saying this as a card carrying member of the baby boom generation - born in 1947, graduated from college in 1969, and, like so many other millions of my generation, an eye witness to all that went on then and since.

Just consider for a moment that the 60's began with the inauguration of John Kennedy, not his assassination as Brokaw contends. JFK's famous "Ask not what your country can do for you ..." inaugural exhortation was actually preceded only a few minutes earlier by his bold assurance that , "We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty" - quite a broad, yet popular mandate at the time. What was fomenting within the culture of the Nation that JFK did not see when he delivered that message? Was it his assassination that alone changed the country's (including the greatest generation's) call to duty, or was it much more? Was it that the event and aftermath were televised? To me, the lack of analysis on this point is a flaw.

And, this is important, because when I think of the 60's, I think of Vietnam, the administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, Watergate and the assassinations. I think about the advent of THE PILL (never mentioned) and the rise of the media.

The assassinations are really covered in depth, because Brokaw's list of virtual reunioneers could remember how they felt when they occurred. And yet, everybody who lived during this period can specifically remember their where and when. Vietnam is redundantly, if inartfully, contrasted to Iraq. OK - got it.

But, shouldn't Brokaw have investigated how a country that had been consecutively led by such esteemed leaders - historical giants - such as Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and [potentially] Kennedy could be so disappointingly managed by historical lightweights Johnson, Ford, Nixon and Carter? And, what have been their hangover effects on the baby boomers, particularly Presidents Clinton and Bush? Has their hubris and arrogance and contempt for the people they govern(ed) been born from the roots of causes leading to the fractious Democratic Convention of 1968?

Maybe it is easier to write a history of the 1860's than the 1960's because there are far fewer people around who can recall or dispute the important events of those times. As a baby boomer, I know that many of the the events of the 60's will influence our generation for the next 30 years, or until enough of us die off to allow another generation to hold sway.

But a book such as this demands analysis to go along with the virtual observations of people, famous and random, whose recall and feelings are arguably no better than any of the millions who also endured those turbulent times.

- Did the 60's permanently eliminate the idea of trust in government?
- Did the rise of the media with their "gotcha" mentality lead to distrust of our leaders?
- Did the 60's create the me-first greed ethos that has overtaken corporate management?
- Did they inadverdently re-segregate people into too many small sub-groups of "victims," each equally eager to play their "card" to obtain justice?
- Did they enable society to reduce standards and lower personal accountability - essentially reversing Kennedy's call for patriotism to "Ask your country what it can do for you, ask not what you can do for your country ..."?
- ... and, has all the lowering of standards as a means of appeasing a variety of victims' groups also lowered the Country's ability to compete in a global economy?
- Net net, were the 60's good for the overall long term well being of America?

After seeing Brokaw discussing his book on television, I was expecting to read his analysis and opinions - after all, the book is 611 pages. Perhaps Mr. Brokaw is what he is, and DeToqville he is not. Too bad. "Boom" is history by anecdote, and unfortunately a Bust.

I am reading Boom and am enjoying it immensely. As a former classmate of Tom and his wife Meredith at the University of South Dakota, I recognize many of the names that he mentions from this era, especially the mention of Gene Kimmel and his wife Mary Lou, for I knew them well. The juxtaposition of the rich and famous with ordinary people is a testimony to Brokaw's writing skills and I suspect that if researchers did some of the work for him, in the final analysis, he was his own superb editor.

One fact that needs correction, however, is that Tom was part of the Boomer generation. He was pre-boomer, and thus had part of his sensibilities in the Greatest Generation era. However his work put him right in the center of the enormous changes that occurred in the 60s, both good and bad. His understanding of both eras is important and undoubtedly helped him write this book.

Tom's unique perspectives make Boom an important contribution to the literature about the '60. He has consistently taken his responsibilities seriously, in the tradition of Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, and other great broadcast journalists and continues to do so with his books. Keep up the good work. Highly recommended.

The Boomers, the rebels of the sixties, are the establishment of today. They're the leaders. The power. But they're still fighting the old battles that they never quite got over or outgrew.

I came of age in the sixties. But I was so busy marching and rebelling and yelling "Power to the People" and organizing various things that I didn't get a good look around me. I think I was in a coma throughout the entire decade.

So it was good to read what happened in this book by Brokaw.

The Boomers are an interesting group in many ways. They're powerful and rich and they still are self-involved. They are a very important part of the population, even as they age.

This book documents where the Boomers came from, where they went and where they are. Perhaps those readers who do not remember them as young, will learn why they're such an important generation and, moreover, why they act as they do today.

Americans were walking on the moon and dying in Vietnam, by far one of the most unpopular wars there ever was. It was, indeed, a war that defined a generation.

If you want to understand the Boomers, you will love this book. If nothing else, this is a wonderful chronicle of the generation and a book that brings back to life a very important part of our history, a uniquely American history.

Highly recommended.

As a card carrying member of the class of '68 I certainly should be familiar with everything in this book, but even for me there were a few surprises - things I forgot, some I never knew and even some I'd rather forget. Nevertheless Brokaw's writing was as complete as any other book about the era (Kurlansky's 1968 for instance). I once heard 1968 referred to as a "crack in time." To those of us who came of age in that time period everything in our,lives seemed to change overnight and the epic events that seemed to occur almost daily shaped evrything.

I still remember the anxiety all of my friends were experiencing waiting for their draft notice after graduation and how hard we all prayed the war would end before we were inducted. Working class kids worried about those things, but the "silver spoon brigade" never related.

This isn't required reading for the boomer generation, but it should be for the children and grandchildren of the boomers because they learn none of these event in any depth in school anymore. As parents we all experienced the blank looks from our kids when we spoke about those days and the horrible events when all they had heard about the sixties was it was "the summer of love", or sex, drugs and rock and roll. Brokaws book will give them a better view without being preachy or too academic.

Then maybe Bush should have it read to him so he will know what he missed, and what men like McCain, Murtha, and Kerry went through. And for those who lived through it they all know what it means when someone says: "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Are you listening Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush, ETAL?

Boom! Voices of the Sixties by Tom Brokaw is a rather difficult work for me to assess as I have so many mixed emotions concerning this time of change in or country. First, just to let you know where I am coming from, I am extremely liberal in many of my views and extremely conservative on others. There is very little middle ground for me. I was a career military man and did indeed serve in the Viet Nam War. I, like many others have rather bitter memories of that time and place. I was and am not pleased with the government's decisions at that time, I was not pleased with that war, I was not pleased with the antiwar crowd and I was most certainly not pleased with the news media of that era. Now that being said:

There were parts of this book and its concept that I truly enjoyed and that I thought were quite well done. On the other hand there were aspects of this work that I thought were absolutely horrid. So, I suppose I should say what I liked and did not like.

LIKED: This was sort of a trip down memory lane for me, a nostalgic adventure. I was and am quite familiar with most of the individuals Brokaw interviewed for this work. Good grief, I grew up with them. I went into the military in 1962 and am quite familiar with the events of the time. I am a bit of a news nut, so I had followed most of these stories, personalities and events as they unfolded. I also feel that Brokaw is quite a good writer. His syntax is quite readable. Now I have a very, very low regard for the "talking heads," that try to control our information, both those who lean to the right and those who lean to the left. Brokaw is at the top of my complete distain list. But, the man can write! Like the other talking heads, he was not and is not a reporter, but rather a reader of the news. This does not tough, seemed to have influenced his ability to write well and tell a good story. I enjoyed the format that the author used in this book, which was a "then and now" shuffle of all the interviewees. This was interesting. I enjoyed reviewing events brought up concerning the civil rights movement, woman's movement and peace movement. I enjoyed the fact that the book was written with an extreme liberal bias evident. Good grief folks, if I want to read a conservative slant, I will pick a conservative writer. Asking Brokaw to be fare and balanced when it comes to evaluating ANYTHING is like asking Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter to come out pro gay marriages, pro abortion and pro Democrat. Both of these individuals are just as disgusting as Brokaw and his ilk, although I sometimes think Coulter is at least funny. I thought this work was well organized and I thought it was quite readable. The author did pick some very interesting individual to interview and include in his book. I was glad he was able to record their thoughts and views. I found this interesting, informative and useful.

DISLIKED: When I received this work I thought it was going to be another one like The Greatest Generation, which I felt was truly a unique and useful book...one of the better ones of this genre written over the past two decades. It was absolutely fascinating. Boy, was I wrong! Brokaw has, for the most part, interviewed only celebrities and want to be celebrities. In Greatest Generation, this author offered us a wonderful cross section of individuals. In this work we get only "big names" that the author seems to gloat over like they were his private collection of "famous and powerful people I have known, and look at me, am I not very, very important. He comes across as a big time name dropper. I feel the writer of this work missed a wonderful opportunity here. I also disagreed (this is a personal thing and perhaps many will not share my feelings with me) with many of the conclusions that Brokaw came to. We will not be able to evaluate the impact of the 1960s on our society for at least another fifty or more years. I did not like the almost manic effort the author put into this work trying to compare Iraq with Viet Nam. Hey Tom, different time, different circumstances, different war! I expected this book to give the liberal side of the story...I wanted it to, just like when I read a book by Limbaugh, I expect to get a conservative view point. But Brokaw probably went a bit across the line with this one...hey, he is suppose to be a reporter, even if not much of one.

This work is well worth the read and I am glad I have a copy. I would not suggest though, that anyone who desires to learn what the sixties were really about, use this work as the beginning and end of all works. Just read it, keep it in context and then read some other books on the same subject. I am giving this one three stars rather than four simply because I do not like Tom Brokaw. Tom states over and over again throughout the book how horrible it was that the country turned against the individual G.I. rather than just on the government. Tom, Tom, Tom, I may be well into my dotage now, but my memory is not all that bad. You, of all the talking heads were the worse one in that aspect. Your voice inflection, expressions on your face and the syntax you use in your reading the news was quite obvious to all of us. We have not forgotten.

BOOM! by Tom Brokaw; subtitles: Voices of the 60's, Personal reflections on the sixties and today. This is quite a book. For those with 60's nostalgia, be careful with this one - if you want a recap of the pop-culture changes, there's plenty of that - in their own words - lots of personal stories from people you'll be interested in hearing from. But remember also the other headlines of the era - assassinations, civil rights, race riots, vietnam, the women's movement, the drug culture - lots of stuff you may not want to recall. The book is extremely well done, yet for some of you I wouldn't recommend it. It is historical journalism. The main thing to recommend it though, is how Brokaw ties the 60's to today - in that it is near-brilliant. The ties he exposes are often profound surprises (to me) and are worth your attention if you are serious about understanding what's gone on in your lifetime - from then to now.

If you want the pop-stuff, rent the "Big Chill". If you want the whole deal, read "Boom!".

With a pen as his camera Tom Brokaw has taken an exhaustive look back at the 1960s, a decade unmatched since in controversy. His format is simple...give some of his own reflections of the time and let others do the talking. Given such a broad expanse of territory to cover, Brokaw largely succeeds.

"Boom!" covers the Sixties not in an exact ten-year fashion, but more loosely from the time of the 1963 Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream" speech and the JFK assassination to the 1974 resignation of Richard Nixon. It's a wise choice, as a decade really takes some time to "get going"...and this one certainly did. Brokaw chooses a large sample of voices but it's clear that four essential elements of the decade emerge...Vietnam (remember when it used to be spelled "Viet Nam"?) race, the emerging force of women and music. The war was the dominant story (as Iraq has been in this decade) and the vignettes told by those who served there are some of the finest in the book. And Brokaw spends a good deal of time with the pivotal year of 1968. There's never been another year like it in a decade of which the same could be said.

Brokaw, though nicely understated as you would expect, tends to wander and any narrative coherence is unsuitably loose. Some of the stories don't add much and take away from the heft of "Boom!"...a little paring down of the book would have been welcome. But he more than covers the essentials and those stories not necessarily connected with the main topics are terrific.

While many viewed the Sixties during its "run" as turbulent, the forty years since have turned it bittersweet for a number of us. But Brokaw finishes in a classic upbeat way with the story of astronaut Jim Lovell and the photos of the earth taken from Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve, 1968, transmitted back to earth. It was an awe-inspiring end to that year. I highly recommend "Boom!" and Tom Brokaw for giving us a wide-ranging remembrance of the 1960s.

In THE GREATEST GENERATION, veteran newsman Tom Brokaw examined the accomplishments and sacrifices of an America contending with the shadow of World War darkening daily life. He seeks to recreate that feeling in BOOM!

The Baby Boomers have seen innumerable changes in the years following World War II --- an improvement in rights for women and minorities; technological advancement; revolutions in popular culture and the arts, among others. Brokaw reports on and interviews scores of "boomers" to discuss how coming of age (primarily) in the 1960s changed their lives.

Many of the names will be familiar to readers; others will not be, but that doesn't diminish their contributions to myriad "causes." While a Gloria Steinem rose to international prominence, a Muriel Kraszewski, who fought for women's rights in the workplace, received much less acclaim. But that's part of Brokaw's point: Boomers were all in it together, as a community, striving toward common goals. Brokaw says that the people he spoke with for the book believed "they were the largest, best educated, and the wealthiest generation in American history." I wonder if every generation doesn't make that claim, as it accomplishes a bit more than the preceding one.

Brokaw splits his narrative into a type of "before" and "after" scenarios. The first part roughly considers life before 1969, with the assignations, the war in Vietnam and the struggle for civil rights. The second part is a reflection of the "Aftershocks: Consequences, Intended and Otherwise." This can be a bit confusing; for example, there are sections of women's issues in both parts, but ultimately they tell very similar stories of stepping out of the image of the television housewife, vacuuming the living room in high heels and pearls, and "into their own."

The Vietnam War also plays prominently in BOOM! as men who were then of draft age struggled with their consciences, whether to join in the fighting for American ideals or protest perceived injustices. Those "protest parallels" are especially apt today, as the country is embroiled in another conflict many see as unwinnable. Additional topics consider the (r)evolution of politics and other societal issues, although Brokaw does include some '60s pop culture, including musicians and entertainers (James Taylor, Paul Simon, Judy Collins, etc.).

Brokaw concludes his latest opus with a profile of astronaut Jim Lovell, a member of the Apollo 8 crew that made the first trip to orbit the moon in 1968. This is an interesting choice; one might have thought the more appropriate ending would have been Neil Armstrong, who took man's first wobbly steps on another surface. Lovell said that when he looked down on the Earth from his vantage point, all the world's problems seemed so insignificant. Somehow I don't think that's the impression Brokaw would want to leave for a generation that tends to have a reputation of being self-centered.

As a member of the generation under his microscope, Brokaw is well-equipped to report, firsthand, something that he could not do in his previous effort. But is this a book that should have been written now, or should more time have elapsed, as was the case with THE GREATEST GENERATION? Have we accomplished all those idealistic goals we had in the '60s? Have we attained an America built on liberty and justice for all, or have those ideals sloughed away as we've grown into middle age and beyond? The answer, of course, is mixed.

--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan