Boom!: Talking About the Sixties: What Happened, How It Shaped Today, Lessons for Tomorrow

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Product Description
In Boom!, Tom Brokaw, one of America’s premier journalists and the acclaimed author of The Greatest Generation, gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America: the tumultuous Sixties. The voices and stories of both famous people and ordinary citizens come together in this “virtual reunion” as Brokaw takes us on a memorable journey through a remarkable time, exploring how individuals and the national mood were affected by a controversial era and showing how the aftershocks of the Sixties continue to resound in our lives today. In the reflections of a generation, Brokaw also discovers lessons that might guide us in the years ahead. Race, politics, war, feminism, popular culture, and music are all delved into here. Brokaw explores how members of this generation have gone on to bring activism and a Sixties mindset into individual entrepreneurship , as we hear stories of how this formative decade has shaped our perspectives on business, the environment, politics, family, and our national existence. Remarkable in its insights, wonderfully written and reported, this revealing book lets us join in these frank conversations about America then, now, and tomorrow.

Bonus DVD: Excerpt From 1968 with Tom Brokaw, A History Channel special

Praise for Boom!

“Tom Brokaw does an excellent job of capturing an exciting, controversial period in American history and Boom! is a worthy addition to his growing canon.”–New York Post

“[Tom Brokaw] approaches this magnum opus with warmth, curiosity and conviction, the same attributes that worked so well for his Greatest Generation.”
–The New York Times

“[A] verbal scrapbook of the Sixties . . . [Boom! shows] that the era’s core issues–racism, women’s rights, a nation-dividing war–remain central today, and that the values boomers championed haven’t yet gone bust.”
–People (four stars)

“Packed with memorable people, places, events . . . A ‘virtual reunion’ of 1960s folks telling what they did back then, where they’ve been since and how they assess that tumultuous decade.”
–Chicago Tribune

“Genuinely fascinating recollections . . . plenty of memorable anecdotes.”
–The Wall Street Journal

Customer Reviews: Read 89 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Totally, totally..... November 7, 2007
99 out of 115 found this review helpful

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

5 out of 5 stars

An overview worth reading November 13, 2007
64 out of 80 found this review helpful

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?

2 out of 5 stars

BUST! December 3, 2007
48 out of 60 found this review helpful

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.

5 out of 5 stars

A time of change remembered November 9, 2007
39 out of 47 found this review helpful

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.

4 out of 5 stars

if you remember the Sixties you weren't there October 30, 2007
30 out of 62 found this review helpful

Tom Brokaw shifts his attention from THE GREATEST GENERATION to the spoiled brats they raised in the Baby Boom Generation. OK, some of us were not spoiled. Even so, we had sex, drugs, rock and roll, the Vietnam War, the battles for racial and sexual equality, etc.

Brokaw looks at many of the issues and he inserts his own anecdotes among the reflections of his many guests. He interviewed the famous; Dick Cheney,Newt Gingrich, Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins, Bill Clinton, Pat Buchanan, Hillary Clinton, George McGovern, Warren Beatty, and the not-so-famous who also had some great memories of those days. Forty years later, we still can't figure out the significance of that period. But, we are trying.

Brokaw writes evenly but he takes pains to avoid rocking the boat. Early on, we learn about how much he was earning as a news man on TV in Omaha and LA. About 10 thousand a year. Once he makes it to NBC, and the big time, he stops telling readers about the millions he was earning eventually. Sure, he works hard but his wealth and celebrity status would seem to be impediments to asking the hard questions.

For instance; the book is about the '60s and TODAY. Respondents are constantly juxtaposing their memories of 40 years ago with what is happening today. Brokaw implies that Bill Clinton is now earning millions on the lecture circuit. Then there is Dick Cheney. That guy has gotten filthy rich since he has been in politics. His stint as Defense Secretary got him the cushy deal with Halliburton that has earned Cheney millions. Cheney as Vice President has refused to divest himself of his Halliburton stock. The Iraq war, which Cheney instigated, has earned him many more millions from Halliburton.

It's wrong. Politicians use their political connections to get rich. Brokaw is rich. He doesn't say anything about any of that to Cheney. Or, if he did, it isn't in the book.

The book is worth reading but it is not hard hitting. You can't do that and remain in that club, the MONEY CLUB, if you ask tough questions. Brokaw is a good journalist but he has been compromised by the power structure, the one that made him rich, too.

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