Boomer Nation: The Largest and Richest Generation Ever, and How It Changed America (Hardcover)

~ Steve Gillon (Author), Nancy Singer Olaguera (Designer) "A history of the Baby Boom generation could start in any town or city in the country..." (more)
Key Phrases: new urbanists, new urbanism, older veterans, New York, United States, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The historian/host of the History Channel's History Center, Gillion chronicles post-WWII America through the lives of six boomers who represent different strands of baby boom cultureâ€"which Gillon asserts has become synonymous with American culture. Four of his subjects have achieved national prominence: Bobby Muller, who founded Vietnam Veterans of America; lawyer and cancer survivor Fran Visco, who became president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition; Marshall Herskovitz, developer of the seminal television series Thirtysomething; and architect Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, who created the avant-garde Florida community of Seaside. Together with Donny Deutsch, a self-made advertising mogul, and Alberta Wilson, who overcame substance abuse and poverty to become a Christian educator, they provide the focus for a look at the Vietnam War, the women's movement and the attraction of some boomers to fundamentalist religion. What Gillon uniquely accomplishes is to illuminate how pervasive boomer influence continues to be in the 21st century. He touches on iconic events and influencesâ€"Catch-22, Woodstock, the Cold War, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther Kingâ€"but he is refreshingly unnostalgic about them. Gillon makes especially interesting points when exploring the continuity from the boomers to Gen X (born between 1965 and 1976) and Gen Y (1977â€"1995). His assessment of the boomer is generally favorableâ€"boomers did not abandon their core values of self-reliance, entitlement and idealism, but have applied those values to the changing challenges they have faced. The result, he says, is that "we are all boomers now."
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From Booklist

"The Baby Boom would prove to be the single greatest demographic event in American history--more significant, even, than the staggering loss of life during the Civil War," insists this academic and television host, who focuses on those born between 1947 and 1957 rather than 1946 and 1964. He contends that there is a common thread running through this generation that constitutes 29 percent of the population, but at the same time he recognizes the great differences in backgrounds, unique personal crises, conservatives, liberals, political independents, churchgoers, and others. They are today's decision makers in boardrooms and government. To tell the story of this generation, the author profiles six individuals whose experiences reflect the broad themes of the age: television, advertising, religion, architecture, feminism, and the Vietnam War. Harsh reality has had a profound effect on this generation, being raised on expectations of the good life and "having it all." This tale of the boomers who reshaped America is fascinating. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (May 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743229479
• ISBN-13: 978-0743229470
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #967,920 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and rigorous, July 10, 2004

By	Matthew Gleick (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

Although there's little debate that baby boomers transformed America in important ways, there are surprisingly few books that try to analyze in meaningful ways what the boomers actually did and what it means, in the first place, to talk about the Baby Boom as a distinct generation. Gillon rectifies that with this book, which uses the stories of six different boomers of dramatically different social and cultural backgrounds to illuminate the experience of a generation.

Needless to say, the people we now call boomers were hardly all alike, and there were all sorts of ties -- ethnic, religious, professional -- that connected them more closely to people in other generations than to people in their own. But Gillon convincingly shows how the demographic realities of the boom shaped the lives of nearly everyone in it, and had a deep-seated cultural impact that was hard to escape. This is a sharp work of history, rigorous in the way it approaches problems but thoroughly entertaining in in its storytelling.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful journey into the soul of a generation, October 27, 2004

By	Brent Green "Author of Marketing to Leading-E... (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One prolific reviewer posting here, and claiming to be born in 1951, assails the concept of this book, concluding that the topic of Baby Boomers has been overdone and overwrought. He even quotes a sweeping generational invective attributed to Paul Begala, who, so the quote goes, views Boomers as "the most self-centered, self-seeking, self-interested, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self aggrandizing generation in American history."

It is very clear that neither this reviewer nor Begala (if he indeed uttered such drivel) truly understand the generation or have weighed in their calculations the enormous contributions of Boomers to science, medicine, technology, business and the arts. The reviewer claims superior insight into the hearts of 76 million Americans when his perceptivity is woefully lacking and clearly one-sided. He should read this book again, and this time unobstructed by his own anger and prejudices. All-encompassing denunciations of the generation and its journalists reveal an overarching political agenda that's harmful, derisory and just plain inaccurate.

Calling on exhaustive research, and presenting extraordinary details about Boomer culture and history, Steve Gillon clarifies many of the underlying themes and social dynamics that helped form and foment this generation. There were many positive contributions to the maturation of the generation from the hardworking and brave older Americans who struggled through The Great Depression and World War II, but there were also destructive forces in place before the first Boomer took a breath of air in 1946.

These social and cultural cancers included rampant racism, sexism, environmental holocaust, and a sometimes Pollyannaish façade that denied many citizens access to full economic opportunity or the precious freedom of self-expression. Gillon's narrative reminds any intelligent reader of the risks of unchallenged, unquestioned allegiance to our government and its leaders. He shows through his intriguing characters that citizen responsibility also demands citizen activism, and with the Boomers, America found strident change-agents whose actions benefit millions today in a more egalitarian country.

Without being gratuitous, Gillon also gives readers a palpable appreciation for the bravery, sacrifices, idealism, tenacity, and inventiveness of this generation. He neither puts the generation on a pedestal nor rakes it through hellfire. He simply paints an accurate and evocative picture through the lives of six remarkable members of the generation. He does this with superb craft and rigor, and for this he should be commended.

A few readers posting here have lambasted this book because they don't feel Gillon's six characters are representative of the generation. No six individuals, average or exceptional, could ever fully embody a generation of 76 million. It's ludicrous to suggest that a handful of biographies could perfectly capture so much diversity ... unless the six represent larger, more universal generational metaphors and shared experiences.

A racially segregated African American woman transforms from a Black Panther, to a hippie, and then to a Christian fundamentalist. A party-hardy, dope-smoking, live-for-today iconoclast grows up to lead a creative revolution in Boomer advertising. A patriotic athlete volunteers for hard duty in Vietnam, becomes paralyzed, confronts anomie at home, and pursues a stateside agenda of equitable governmental treatment of all Vietnam vets. The author's characters combine to reflect the sociology and culture of the Boomer zeitgeist, and each becomes an ingenious springboard allowing Gillon to explore shared history, politics, and culture.

This book has great relevance for social observers, academicians, historians, curious members of other generations, and Boomers themselves. "Boomer Nation" enriches understanding of and appreciation for a recondite generation and is further an invaluable reference resource for business executives who, to be fully effective when targeting this generation, must understand the nuances of Boomers' shared culture and formative experiences. This insightful book about recent history demands to be a part of any contemporary "Boomer Business Tool Kit."

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Eye Candy, September 19, 2004

By	D. Giesen "intrigued reader" (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Boomer Nation is interesting. It is a compelling read only because it is extremely well written and takes a group of lives and walks them through the late 1940s to 2000. The book's strength is a journalistic technique called "personification," where a writer takes dull statistics and uses anecdotal information to illustrate hard numbers.

That's a wonderful idea, if you have the data to back up why you chose who you chose for the anecdotes. Author Gillon was incredibly shallow in presenting hard data to back up why he selected to profile the people he did. Only one couple, two architects whose urban concepts featured "Back to the Future Design," was apparent for why they were there.

The book takes a diverse array of, primarily, easterners and uses biographical sketches to illustrate everything from Vatican II to the women's movement to the lost decade of the 1970s, when America seemed to ignore the fact it had a drug, booze and vision problem.

Why these people were choosen was never clear. They just, frankly, appear. While they represent different themes of the last 50 years, most are extremes. What's lost in the discussion is why there people are better examples of their generation than, say, Bill Clinton, or, for that matter, me!

In summary, the book is well written but poor documentation makes a potentially good book at best mediocre.