Tom Brokaw's "Boom: Voices of the Sixties..."

Four decades ago Americans were heading toward the moon and dying in street demonstrations. The country was dealing with race, feminism, drugs, changing visions of culture, an active war and an even more active peace movement. 1968 alone saw the Tet Offensive, the My Lai Massacre, assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy, Soviet tanks into Prague, DNC riots, and the first manned orbit of the moon. Among other things these events defined the Baby Boom generation whose collective experiences during that decade would form the basis of the next 40+ years of American politics.

The fact that the 60s was an tumultuous time is not news so if a book is going to be about that period, it needs to have more going for it than remembrances and pithy quotations such as "If you remember the 60s, then you weren't there." This book has much more than that.

Following up on his previous best seller, which dealt with the generation that came before the Baby Boomers, former anchor man Tom Brokaw tackles the subject manner in a thoughtful and thorough manner. He uses interviews with famous people (Gary Trudeau, Joan Baez, Jann Wenner, etc.) as well as ordinary folks to tell the stories.

If you are a member of the Baby Boomer generation you will like this book for putting your trip down memory lane into a context of what is happening today. If you are younger then you might still enjoy the exploration of historical topics that are referenced on a daily basis in contemporary culture (the most recent example being the Vietnam-era "Across The Universe" which is a surprise hit with teen girls). Other examples include the riots surrounding the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the Pentagon Papers, and bombing of Cambodia.

Almost everything in this book has been written before, just not nearly as well.

Amazon link: Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today