Boom!

Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today

By: Tom Brokaw

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

In The Greatest Generation, his landmark bestseller, Tom Brokaw eloquently evoked for America what it meant to come of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Now, in Boom!, one of America’s premier journalists gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America as he brings to life the tumultuous Sixties, a fault line in American history. The voices and stories of both famous people and ordinary citizens come together as Brokaw takes us on a memorable journey through a remarkable time, exploring how individual lives and the national mindset 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.

Boom! One minute it was Ike and the man in the grey flannel suit, and the next minute it was time to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” While Americans were walking on the moon, Americans were dying in Vietnam. Nothing was beyond question, and there were far fewer answers than before.

Published as the fortieth anniversary of 1968 approaches, Boom! gives us what Brokaw sees as a virtual reunion of some members of “the class of ’68,” offering wise and moving reflections and frank personal remembrances about people’s lives during a time of high ideals and profound social, political, and individual change. What were the gains, what were the losses? Who were the winners, who were the losers? As they look back decades later, what do members of the Sixties generation think really mattered in that tumultuous time, and what will have meaning going forward?

Race, war, politics, feminism, popular culture, and music are all explored here, and we learn from a wide range of people about their lives. Tom Brokaw explores how members of this generation have gone on to bring activism and a Sixties mindset into individual entrepreneurship today. We hear stories of how this formative decade has led to a recalibrated perspective–on business, the environment, politics, family, our national existence.

Remarkable in its insights, profoundly moving, wonderfully written and reported, this revealing portrait of a generation and of an era, and of the impact of the 1960s on our lives today, lets us be present at this reunion ourselves, and join in these frank conversations about America then, now, and tomorrow.©2007 Tom Brokaw; (P)2007 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

“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

Almost

The Greatest Generation was an outstanding book, thought this would be on the same level. Just did not have the same effect. With a voice as great as Tom Brokaw he should have been the voice of Boom. The overall book was interesting but diffenitely not the Greatest Generation.

Long long newscast

The 60’s were indeed remarkable and there were lots and lots of incredible people. Brokaw reports on the seemingly endless Biggies and personalizes each a smidge. It’s just too much info for one sitting. One larger than life person and or episode after another tends to neutralize, for me, the magnitude of any and all.

Outstanding!

This book was an outstanding recap of the 1960's with stories from many individuals.

Nice!

It was cool to get perspectives of the 60's from someone who was there and is able to articulate the stories from that time. I have this strange feeling that the stories in this book are destined to repeat itself in the near future, stories of wrongful wars, uprisings, political mishaps, etc. Good audiobook.

Another Brokaw hit

I love the insight given by Tom Brokaw in his books. The Greatest Generation gave me a look in to what life was like for my parents. I am a Cusper, born in 1964 in between the Boomer generation and the Generation X'er's. In Boom, Tom gives me an overview of the lives of the news makers of the 60's. You can tell that Mr. Brokaw was very much a 60's child and I was rather shocked to find out that he even tried Marijuana :-) .

The book at times got long winded when it came to the political scene. Although those chapters were still interesting it just went a little more in depth than my own scant knowledge of the decade was willing to sit through.

I also wish that Tom would have narrated the book himself but Robertson Dean did an excellent narration.

I really enjoyed the book and look forward to listening to the next in Mr. Brokaw's line.

Outstanding!

Thoroughly engaging throughout. The parallels between today and the late 60s captured are interesting and concerning in many ways.

Best history lesson ever!

where else can one find the truth about our American past than by a true journalist who was there since tv times AND now I am SO much closer to understanding why there is more division than there is passion, for insisting that we stop repeating history and start making compromise, having respectful discussions about our opinions (without aggravation of being called a name), and pay attention to those being called "anti" or other names because surely we've learned by now that THOSE are the folks who have information that others don't want us to have access to. unless we want to wait for the classified files to be released 30 years from now

Should be titled Racism

Have enjoyed Brokaw’s books in the past but if it wasn’t for one of my favorite narrators, I would have stopped in hour two. Over and over again Brokaw goes back to race, racism and racist in America. Seemed like hours on this subject! Nothing new here, disappointing!

Wide and Shallow

I guess it's no surprise that a news reporter, whose job is to provide shallow sound-bite summaries of complex events, would serve up an equally shallow pile of dull conventional wisdom. Save your money.

boring survey of a generation

This book was a relatively lifeless survey of the 60s and early 70s. While Brokaw picked out a handful of folks for their views on the generation, for the most part, there wasn't much of anything to learn from it.