The Boomer Century, 1946-2046: How America's Most Influential Generation Changed Everything [Hardcover]

Richard Croker (Author), Ken Dychtwald (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2007

The Baby Boom generation has always been known as
a demographic anomaly and these 77 million Americans
have dominated our society for the past 60 years, setting
trends and revolutionizing entire industries. They didn't
just date, they transformed sex roles and practices. They
didn't just go to the doctor, they reinvented healthcare.
And now retirement and aging will never be the same
as the oldest boomers move into their 60s with no
thoughts of traditional retirement or old-age homes!
Featuring insightful interviews and essays from Baby
Boomers like Dr. Andrew Weill, Erica Jong, Eve Ensler,
Rob Reiner, Oliver Stone, Lester Thurow, and Tony
Snow, THE BOOMER CENTURY is an entertaining,
historical and cultural look at a truly amazing generation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After Croker (No Greater Courage) notes that boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964, his panel of 31 "experts" (Julian Bond, Eve Ensler, Erica Jong, Tony Snow and David Gergen, among them) remind readers of formative events of the boomer past—Vietnam, JFK, civil rights, drugs, the sexual revolution, etc. Then they move on to the boomer present, the world of work, where boomers have stretched the 9-to-5 workday to 24/7, invented telecommuting and digitized everything. In the third section, Croker's experts speculate about how boomers will change our notions of retirement and old age. All the clichés about this generation are included: "Any real Boomer can easily flash back in time and find himself sitting on the living room floor absolutely mesmerized by those beloved Saturday Morning Cartoons" and "[t]here is not a genuine Boomer around today who cannot sing word-for-word and note-for-note about two dozen Beatles songs." Presumably, the PBS documentary this is supposed to accompany will have music or news footage to liven it up—but pages and pages of talking heads delivering sound bites doesn't add up to a particularly engaging reading experience. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

RICHARD CROKER lives in
Marietta, Georgia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Springboard Press; 1ST edition (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446580813
• ISBN-13: 978-0446580816
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How can a book be so silly and so scary at the same time?, July 10, 2007

By 

Patricia Fitzpatrick (Moultrie, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boomer Century, 1946-2046: How America's Most Influential Generation Changed Everything (Hardcover)

I was looking for a book that approached the boomers' effect on the future, what sort of housing, leisure pursuits, educational opportunities, etc.

What I got in this work was seventy-five percent super fluff nostalgia for how great we boomers are/were and twenty-five percent on, "now what are you going to do for us clever and adorable creatures".

The style of writing follows the script for the show they did on the same subject (full disclosure: I wouldn't watch such drivel so I'm going by the writer's statements) but the loose conversational manner of a documentary interview does not translate well to a book format. Many of the views of their so-called panel of experts were so clumsily written that it was necessary to read them three or four times to understand any of it.

And the "experts" all seemed to have the same delusional view that we can all be spoiled narciccists, live like theirs no tomorrow, and enjoy intergenerational piece and harmony in our old age while the struggling Gen X and Y slave like animals to pay for it.

Willful ignorance is the most dangerous drug of all.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, May 26, 2007

By 

David R. Dunn "DRD" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boomer Century, 1946-2046: How America's Most Influential Generation Changed Everything (Hardcover)

This book offers a great overview of the boomer generation, past, present and future. It is the companion to a PBS documentary, but where the tv show gives us only a sentence, the book offers an entire paragraph (the entire thought) of a group of experts so diverse as to include Oliver Stone and Tony Snow. Now THAT'S diverse. It is informative, entertaining and often amusing. A great read not only for boomers, but for Gens X and Y as well.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Readable Perspective on Boomers, January 31, 2010

By 

M. Embry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boomer Century, 1946-2046: How America's Most Influential Generation Changed Everything (Hardcover)

I found this book to be very readable and entertaining. It brought back many memories of growing up (yes, I'm a Boomer). I thought it covered a lot of territory and provided a somewhat broad view of the generation.
About my only negative is that the book could have used more sources. Every chapter seemed to go back to the same folks. The sources were good, but more would have been better and more well-rounded.
Overall, the book is interesting even if a bit self-serving for a self-serving generation of Americans.