[.ca] Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the ... (ISBN 0739326821)

Clear, sensible and a true American:
If you grew up or lived in the sixties you'll find this book very interesting. It deals with the dramatic changes that took place in peoples lives all across the country and the world during this time. It also goes on to talk about current times but remains very interesting throughout. Even if you did not grow up or live in the sixties you might still find this one very interesting. Also recommended, Understanding: Train of Thought.

Scrapbook of Then, Now, and What It Might Have Meant:
Tom Brokaw brings us a large dose of nostalgia as he recounts his life experiences and reflections about the sixties and their implications for today. Interwoven are many personal accounts by the famous that seem like extended People magazine features (where are they now?) rather than social history. Mr. Brokaw has a gentle, accepting personal style that makes the stories easy to read and experience. I think this book will be of most interest to those who didn't live during the sixties as they try to appreciate this formative period in the lives of their parents and grandparents. I suspect the book will be of most value to these younger people if they use stories in the book as the launching pad for questions to their elders. I hope this will occur. Those who didn't experience the sixties don't understand a lot about the perspectives of those who did. A key limitation of this book for those who want to appreciate the period is that the book doesn't really bring the history alive except in a brief time line in the back of the book. If you know the history of the 1940s-1960s, that's not a problem. My sense is that those under 35 are a little unclear on what happened then . . . and don't really care to know a lot more. Ultimately, the book has a weakness that cannot be avoided: While there were heroes in the sixties, most of them died then or moved on to something not very heroic. So the stories will mostly pale compared to those of The Greatest Generation. What did the sixties mean? Opinions vary, but the gist of the book suggests the following: 1. Idealistic young people cannot accomplish very much without leaders who know what they are doing to head the young people in the right direction. Those leaders have been lacking for a long time. 2. Opposition to wars seems to be more likely when young people may be drafted to fight in them than when the wars merely create horrible situations for others. 3. All of that experimentation with wild living was dangerous and hard to recover from. 4. The core value of the sixties was probably "let me do my thing." That extreme desire for choice continues today and is part of what's good and bad about our society. 5. Tolerance grew out of the sixties . . . as did personal ambition for those who had been held back by social constraints. Those were good things. 6. We continue to be divided as a society by the issues raised during the sixties. I found the book bringing back a lot of memories, especially when I saw how many people I know or have met recounted their lives in the book. I'm not sure it was a good idea to remember many of those things. By the way, this material would have been much more desirable if done as a video of the interviews and reminiscences with lots of music and images of the sixties interspaced.