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| Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics | 
 enlarge | Authors: Morley Winograd, Michael D. Hais
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 15927
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0813543010
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.973014
EAN: 9780813543017
ASIN: 0813543010
Publication Date: March 30, 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
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 Interesting but not wholly convincing June 14, 2008
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
"Millennial Makeover" presents a very interesting but not wholly convincing analysis of how politics may be shaped by the rise of the Millennials, or those born between 1982 and 2003. Relying far too much on a questionable cyclical reading of American history, Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais nonetheless demonstrate how the Millennial's embrace of new cultural attitudes and technologies will impact the political dialogue for decades to come. While the author's selective presentation of data tends to prompt far more questions than answers, the book succeeds in providing an interesting introduction to a subject that no doubt will be discussed and debated now and well into the future.
Mr. Winograd and Mr. Hais contend that American politics cycle through change about every forty years and experience a profound realignment about once every eighty years. The authors believe that these changes are typically spurred by the ideological exhaustion of prior generations and the introduction of new technologies that enable new political constituencies to form. In my view, this is problematic: critics such as David R Mayhew have pointed out that cyclical theorists are more often wrong than right; worse, as a theoretical construct, the methodology tends to close off lines of inquiry into the underlying reasons why voter preferences may be realigning, such as changes in economic or social conditions of the kind that one might suspect may be operative at the present time.
Fortunately, Mr. Winograd and Mr. Hais serve up plenty of raw meat and provide insight into the Millennials that might help us form our own opinions about what the future might hold. The authors explain how blogging and peer-to-peer technologies are empowering "netroots" activism and providing alternatives to broadcast media; they go on to argue that political parties must shift from prevailing money-and-media models to decentralized organizational structures. We are shown some interesting case studies where individuals have used YouTube and MySpace to win local contests against great odds and upset the conventional wisdom. These sections of the book succeed brilliantly as they draw upon the author's decades of experience in the political arena to shed new light on how profoundly the process is changing and how American democracy might be reinvigorated.
Yet somehow, the light that Mr. Winograd and Mr. Hais shines on the Millennial generation itself appears to be diffused. For example, one must wonder if the large numbers of Millennials who currently suffer from deficient healthcare and educational services might be represented disproportionately among those who favor greater government spending; might not this constitute a cry of desperation rather than one of enlightened civility, as the authors of this book seem to suggest? Unfortunately, the author's insistence on rolling up the Millennials into a single, undifferentiated mass makes it impossible for us to know. On this point, readers might do well to consider The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein who presents the Millennials as a generation whose critical thinking skills have been stupefied by an unprecedented abundance of mind-distracting media and technological gadgetry; contrary to Mr. Winograd and Mr. Hais, Mr. Bauerlein demonstrates that the Millennials possess a diminished knowledge of civics compared to prior generations and worse, generally lack the cognitive skills needed to distinguish between true and false claims of information.
Compounding the problem is that the authors seem determined to write a palliative for the Democratic Party faithful that proposes to show how its policy positions will align neatly with Millennial concerns. Although a reasonable person might well agree with the authors on the wisdom of their proposals, is it not also quite plausible that a repackaging of Republican Party-style 'ownership society' proposals might serve as a marketable (if not credible) response to our current social, economic and environmental crises? Indeed, the survey data presented about the Millennial's overly optimistic material expectations suggests that this generation has been conditioned by unprecedented levels of corporate messaging; presumably this could make Millennials susceptible to corporate greenwashing campaigns, corporate welfare state solutions, and the like. Indeed, to the extent that the Obama and McCain campaigns have championed national health care policies that feature prominent roles for private insurance companies, we may well be witnessing a realignment of voter preferences that merely determines the methods by which the corporate control of our democracy is intensified. Put another way, the evidence presented suggests that the pending realignment, if it materializes, will be political but far from radical.
In any case, the authors are to be congratulated for writing a stimulating book that helps us consider how major changes might well be in the offing. I recommend the book for everyone interested in political science and contemporary events.
 Very impressive February 24, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is one impressive book. I just started reading it last night -- and I haven't even gotten into the youtube, myspace stuff yet. But the generational discussion is very provocative,
Everyone I know is talking about nothing else but the improbability of what has happened between Obama and Clinton. A veteran public relations operative, a survivor of many political battles, can't figure out what this movement is all about, or whether it is even healthy.
The table of contents suggests it will answer those questions as well. I can hardly wait to resume reading.
 Political pop science for the convinced July 2, 2008
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
Winograd and Hais theorize that American political constituencies cycle and recycle every 40-years with each cycle fueled by new technologies that empower new constituencies. Ostensibly, the millennial "civic purpose" generation, by some astrological virtue, is poised to assume a mantle of power. If the authors are correct, then the Greatest Generation was great because of its place in a 40-year cycle and not because of the harsh reality of having to fight Adolph Hitler or die.
To support their theory, the authors would have us believe that "long periods of great stability in electoral outcomes" can be deduced from a pattern like Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush (D, R, D, D, R, R, D, R, R, D, R).
Often, in place of real historical events, the authors cite contemporary fiction -- video philosophy from Star Wars' Yoda or fictional facts from J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" that match their worldview. Potter may demonstrate fictional millennial virtues, but the authors avoid Dolores Umbrage, the teacher whose politically correct teaching ignores actual useful defenses against the dark arts. A champion of central authority, as the authors suggest millennials are, she and the Ministry of Magic avoid at all costs facing the "reality" of evil. Life seems so much easier when history begins at dawn.
The authors presume that Democrats alone can pull this generation's technological sword from the stone. Never mind that technology is a tool for whoever cares to learn enough to use it -- not just Democrats or Republicans, but fundamentalists, radicals, and reactionaries of all persuasions. The authors overlook the 60-year-old ideas of Marshall McLuhan, who warned of the importance of a medium's cognitive effects. Lose your content and you lose your bearings.
The book promotes now-ness, technological infatuation, and me-ness to suggest millennials deserve power because they are who they are -- which makes them ripe for picking by any chameleon-like leader. Look elsewhere for help understanding the past or planning a future because this book is a honey-pot of buzzwords for the convinced.
Explains why Obama won and the next 20 years November 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Written a year before the 2008 election, Millenial Makeover explains why Obama's election was no fluke and was not simply a reaction to the G W Bush presidency. Rather it was a result--just one--of the most significant demographical and cultural change since the baby boom of 1946-60. The millenials are very different from the boomers and from Gen X. Read this and learn what's in store for America in the next twenty years.
Millennial Makeover October 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A difficult book to read, but very challenging and informative. I enjoyed it very much.
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