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Rating: 
Summary: Engaging and rigorous
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Eye Candy
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Reads good, but doesn't describe the people I know.
Review: Gillon writes with an exciting and entertainly style. I enjoyed reading it, as much as I enjoy someone like Neil Gaiman. Neil writes good fiction and he entertains me. Gillon writes entertaining non-fiction, but it's not representative of most of us.
For someone, like myself, from the boomer generation, the people he selected as examples could not have been more different than me or any of the people my age. One fellow sold a business for $270 million. A woman obtained her PhD. Another woman spearheaded a successful campaign for breast cancer. Another fellow has several successful TV shows. I don't know people like that. I don't drink beer with them. They have success in their lives that only 1 in 10,000 people find, maybe more. They are celebrities.
I couldn't relate to real life people he talked about. Sorry, but I couldn't connect the changes in America with what these 4 people did with their lives either.
The people I know, work, pay their bills, worry about raising their children, and how they will get along after they retire. During the last 30 years, the people Gillon didn't talk about, struggled to get a good education, get a good job, keep the job, and hold their marriage together. They are in debt up to their eyeballs. Gillon's characters were building billion dollar businesses, getting PhD's, meeting the President, or having their TV shows on a national network.
Good for them, I am happy for them, but no one I know has any experience living a charmed life these people have.
I hope Gillon makes lots of money and becomes famous, because that is what he admires.
I hope my family loves me, I set a good example in my neighbor hood, and I can help someone along their way.
Different strokes for different folks, as they say.
Rating:
Summary: Talkin' 'bout My Generation.......lots of screwed up people!
Review: Just what the world needs. Here is yet another book analyzing and dissecting the wants, needs, accomplishments and frustrations of the so-called "Baby Boom" generation. I don't know about you but I am getting sick and tired of hearing and reading about them. And I was born in 1951!!! In "Boomer Nation", author Steve Gillon attempts to explain the unique set of circumstances that existed after World War II that helped to shape a generation. At the same time, he introduces us to six "Boomers" of varying backgrounds and follows these folks on their journey from adolescence into adulthood. What strikes me about many of those portrayed in this book and so many other members of my generation is the incredible amount of pain in their personal lives and so much of it self-imposed! I guess sex, drugs, alcohol and rock 'n roll are not all that they were cracked up to be.
Steve Gillon argues that through all of the trials, tribulations and turmoil of the past four decades America in the year 2004 is really a much better place. I would beg to differ. Has the 24 hour/7 day a week economy created by Boomers really enhanced your quality of life? Do we really need to live in houses 4 and 5 times the size of the houses we grew up in? And is it really necessary to shop in a grocery store with 25000 items? I must say that I have to agree with Paul Begala, hardly a conservative Republican, who views Boomers as "the most self-centered, self-seeking, self-interested, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self aggrandizing generation in American history." But judge for yourself. If you are not already bored with the subject matter you may find this book to be a worthwhile read. If nothing else this is a very well written book.
Rating: 
Summary: A powerful journey into the soul of a generation
Review: 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."
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