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

by Tom Brokaw, 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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, American History, Politics, Memoir, Audiobook

Audio

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Thomas John Brokaw is an American television journalist and author, previously working on regularly scheduled news documentaries for the NBC television network, and is the former NBC News anchorman and managing editor of the program NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. His last broadcast as anchorman was on December 1, 2004, succeeded by Brian Williams in a carefully planned transition. In the later part of Tom Brokaw's tenure, NBC Nightly News became the most watched cable or broadcast news program in the United States. Brokaw also hosted, wrote, and moderated special programs on a wide range of topics. Throughout his career, he has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

Brokaw serves on the Howard University School of Communications Board of Visitors and on the boards of trustees of the University of South Dakota, the Norton Simon Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and the International Rescue Committee. As well as his television journalism, he has written for periodicals and has authored books. He still works at NBC as a Special Correspondent.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boom! Voices of the Sixties was an incisive and balanced look back on the major events happening in the sixties. The majority of the book covers politics, Vietnam and civil rights. Also included, to a lesser extent are music, lifestyles, women's rights and space exploration.

Brokaw has a nice flow to his writing which makes the book (despite its length) an easy read. The book is divided into sections by topic and then reflects on the prominent people of each. Several pages are devoted to the person with a highlight reel of their achievements and then quotes from recent interviews Brokaw had with each (the book was published in 2007) in which they provide their opinion on their own take-away from the 60s and how they feel it effects the US today.

For those important figures in the 60s that are either no longer with us, or not available for interview, Brokaw looks at different sides of their legacies and provides his own reflections on their impact.

While I enjoyed the book, I wish I would have paid more attention, beforehand, to the subtitle "Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today". Not having grown up in the sixties, I was hoping for more background information on the events of the decade and much more detail on events, public sentiment and major figures of the time. I also thought the "Voices of the Sixties" would refer to what was said then, rather than now. But alas, this is my own fault; the book truly is as the full title states and while not what I was expecting, was a compelling read all the same.

As a side note, the book was written on the heels of the presidential election for 2008 and Obama and Clinton are briefly mentioned as front runners for the democratic nomination, along with the question of whether America was ready to vote Democrat again. And in the wake of our most recent election, it is certainly shocking and more evident than ever, what a difference a decade can make.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up.

This is an interesting but not compelling book about the 1960s. Tom Brokaw interviews a number of famous and not so famous people about their experiences in the 1960s. It is Brokaw’s premise that the decade of the 60s had an inordinate effect on the decades that followed. Sometimes I could see his point; other times his trying to show the lasting effects of a particular occurrence or trend was a real stretch. He discusses civil rights, politics, Vietnam, women’s rights and popular music. In the first section, he discusses what happened; in the second section he discusses the repercussions and the third section, how it all is connected. Oddly, the last section has a chapter entitled “The View from the Moon”, yet he barely covers the space race and how we freaking landed on the moon!

Some sections and interviews are fascinating; others are mind numbing. After 300 pages, I found myself skimming a lot, then slowing down to read something that caught my interest. The book comes with a dvd which has excerpts from a TV special “1968 with Tom Brokaw”. I haven’t watched it yet, but I will.

After watching Brokaw on TV for years, I could hear his voice narrating the book as I read it. There is also a lot about his own life in the book, and how he experienced the 60s. As he interviews people, you never quite know how he feels about what they are saying, if he agrees or disagrees, which is disappointing. I would have liked a little less objectivity and some more personalization in the book.

I was just a kid in the 60s, and so reading parts of this book gave me a more adult perspective on what happened. The 60s were an extremely emotional decade, what with a series of assassinations, an unpopular war, political upheaval and a counter culture movement occurring in a short period of time, capped by a moon landing. This book is almost devoid of emotion which betrays the essence of the decade. It is a dry, intellectual evaluation of a time that was anything but.

I learned some things, but overall, I found the book to be disappointing.

[Cheryl]

Excellent book! If you're a Baby Boomer it will sound like your life. Mr. Brokaw has it all. Civil Rights, Vietnam, Women's Rights, the music and the sounds of the 60's and the 70's.
If you are a child of a Boomer, read it to understand your parents!
Like his book "The Greatest Generation", Mr. Brokaw has interviewed those who were at the forefront of the many movements of the 60's. He also offers his view of this generation. He was a young newsman during the time and just starting his career. He was in the enviable position of being both a part of and an observer of the events than really did change America.
Anyone who lived in the 50's and early 60's (and their parents) can tell you how much America has changed in the last 40 or so years. Almost all of those changes began in the 60's.

[Jackie "the Librarian" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Brokaw talks to people he knows from the 60's and groups them into different sections - women's movement, Vietnam, politics, etc. The result is a whole lot of anecdotes, without much deep analysis. I enjoyed meeting all of Tom Brokaw's friends, and found myself quite envious of his social life! I kind of wanted more pictures, more info on the more interesting personalities, and definitely a few more conclusions.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is saying something good about an author when after you read one book you want to immediately go on and read another. Tom Brokaw had that effect on me. When I finished listening to this book I immediately went to the audible.com website to get his previous book titled The Greatest Generation.

Tom Brokaw is a star TV journalist. I think that means he is fairly discrete in showing what he really thinks. I don't think he really wants to make the world a better place in the global sense but mostly wants to make his world a better place. I don't think he takes many risks and considering how exciting the 1960s were he portrays it with a little too much blandness.

I love the 1960s. I graduated from high school in 1964 and from college in 1968. Vietnam is my era. So I was excited to happen upon this book and enjoyed the page after page of recollections about the 60s. But it turned out the book was as much about how the 60s affected people in the period after the 60s as much as it was directly about the 60s.

In some ways I thought the book was superficial. It did not delve too deeply into what was going on in the 60s and the following decades. There was not really a lot of analysis or debate. A lot of people were touched upon but not for too long or too intensely. But if you lived through the 1960s you will probably find it enjoyable because it will be familiar and extremely reminiscent for you. Person after person and event after event will be rolled by you for your amazement and amusement.

My biggest disappointment with the book was that nothing really grabbed me and brought out any emotions. The traumatic events of the time zipped by so quickly. The overall experience was being entertained by the familiarity of the story. Familiarity had a trouble because the book ended in the middle of the first decade of the 21st-century and of course we remember what happened after that and I wanted to get into the 2008 election and Obama. You get the impression the Tom Brokaw knew and maybe even was friends with some of the people he was talking about but he wanted to maintain his journalistic distance for the most part. He did allude to his life going on in the midst of the period he was covering but it seemed somewhat awkward.

But the book was about the 60s and also the impact of the 60s and that meant I was just about guaranteed to like the book because I like reading about the 60s. And I think the fact that it was an audible book for me made it even better.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first stab at Tom Brokaw’s writing came with his quick-read of a memoir, “A Long Way from Home”, which transported me to a time that I can only recall from stories told to me first-hand from my grandmother, born in South Dakota like Brokaw, and my father, who is about ten years junior to Brokaw. In this his second large-scale attempt to define an important American generation, Brokaw deftly weaves up-close and personal profiles of a multitude of American cultural and political icons – baby boomers all – and confronts the awkward ambiguities of the far-reaching affects of the Vietnam War, women’s lib, and the civil rights movement – not to mention the seminal events of 1968, that annus horribilis in which Bobby Kennedy and MLK were both assassinated within mere months of one another.

Although I certainly don’t envy those dangerous and fearful times – which I missed, obviously, as I was born in ’72 -- I couldn’t help but agree with many of those profiled in this hefty book that some sense of righteous indignation of the still-lingering social injustices has been lost. Or maybe they’ve just been commodified and marketed to numb us to taking direct action. (Think of those silly “show you care” applications on Facebook that really don’t mean a thing, other than the vain attempt to look cool in the hopes of impressing your friends.) In any event, just when you think that you’ve heard everything there is to know about that most tumultuous of decades the Sixties, along comes a book to put you in your place. And put me in my place, Brokaw has.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tom Brokaw returns to the well of generational stories for this document of the lives of a time much more difficult to characterize than the WWII generation, that of the 1960s. Brokaw doesn't take sides in the resulting 40-year cultural debate and wisely qualifies this dispassionate stance by saying that whatever side one falls on, the Sixties were a complex time of cultural change. Merely commenting on the significance of that change and acknowledging that history is still judging the Sixties leaves the reader to decide for himself whether that change was for better or worse. Boom!'s greatest asset, however, doubles as its main shortcoming: the analytic feel that keeps it from oversimplifying the events of the time keep the reader from developing much of an emotional attachment to a time that was nothing if not emotional. Brokaw would have been better served telling fewer stories and going into greater detail. As a factual account of the 1960s, Boom! is a well-written, if clinical, account. But to get the facts without the grit is to miss the full story of the Sixties.

[Rachel Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

This helped me learn more about an era I've always been curious about. I was born in the mid-seventies and missed this important epoch in American history. Brokaw explores the civil rights struggles, feminism, the sexual revolution, the war in Vietnam, and America's disillusionment with its political leaders. Learning about the Sixties through interviews with some of its key figures was helpful. Brokaw also tied the Sixties into the current political climate. This book was published right before the 2008 political election so the references to the war in Iraq were timely. I appreciated getting the arguments for and against drawing parallels between Vietnam and Iraq.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little lifestory confession: I was in high school from 1967 to 1971. Had I been 4 years older and in college during those years, I would have seen "the 60's" up close and personal. While I vividly remember those times, it was as a younger "hippie-wannabe" rather than as a participant in the events. Nevertheless...

I really enjoyed this book. It's not just a look back on the 60's, but Brokaw interviews many of the more interesting "movers and shakers" of the period to reflect on how the issues of that period continue to play out today. The 2008 Presidential Election has been seen as a potential point of resolving some of the 60's ideological splits: between Vietnam veterans and draft resisters, between drug users and nonusers, between rebellion and tradition. If you want to understand some of Obama's let's get beyond all that" message, this book gives a context to "beyond all that" to which he is referring. Highly recommended.

[Dan Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good overview of those who influenced and were influenced by the events of the sixties. Brokaw gives an effective survey of many different individuals and personalities, avoiding the polarized views of the decade, and rather showing the complexities of a rather pivotal ten years. And written in an engaging style, weaving his own personal experience in and out of the profiles. My only complaint is that the book focuses more on the famous and less on ordinary people. I would have liked to seen a few more profiles of urban, small town and suburban folk who were not in the spotlight, and how the decade influenced their lives.

Written before the election--I bet he kicks himself for not interviewing William Ayers!

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing a non-biased book about the politically and socially charged sixties is a near-impossible job. But Brokaw pulls it off (with one glaring exception). The book’s format features then-and-now interviews with survivors of all sides of the sixties experience. There’s something here to offend everybody, but it gets the history pulled together when the interviews are taken as a whole.

The only exception to the honest reporting is the story of Senator Bob Kerrey. On page 181 Brokaw angrily attacks the Vietnamese for claiming Kerrey committed atrocities in Vietnam: "The U.S. government should lodge a protest to Vietnam, not just for Kerrey but to assure veterans of other wars, including Iraq, that they will not be abandoned to the propaganda of the enemy after the fighting in over." He interviewed Kerrey and lauded him for his role in Vietnam. But here’s a small part of what Kerrey said in 1998 (quoted in Wikipedia):

"Kerrey's SEAL team first encountered a villager's house. Later, according to Kerrey, the team was shot at from the village and returned fire, only to find after the battle that some of the deceased appeared to be under 18, clustered together in the center of the village. "The thing that I will remember until the day I die is walking in and finding, I don't know, 14 or so, I don't even know what the number was, women and children who were dead", Kerrey said in 1998. "I was expecting to find Vietcong soldiers with weapons, dead. Instead I found women and children."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ker...

The story is told in gruesome detail in the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/25/mag...

"Senator Bob Kerrey's hands trembled slightly as he began to read six pages of documents that had just been handed to him. It was late 1998; the papers were nearly 30 years old. On the face of it, they were routine "after action" combat reports of the sort filed by the thousands during the Vietnam War. But Kerrey knew the pages held a personal secret -- of an event so traumatic that he says it once prompted fleeting thoughts of suicide.

Pulling the documents within inches of his eyes, he read intently about his time as a member of the Navy Seals and about a mission in 1969 that somehow went horribly wrong. As an inexperienced, 25-year-old lieutenant, Kerrey led a commando team on a raid of an isolated peasant hamlet called Thanh Phong in Vietnam's eastern Mekong Delta. While witnesses and official records give varying accounts of exactly what happened, one thing is certain: around midnight on Feb. 25, 1969, Kerrey and his men killed at least 13 unarmed women and children. The operation was brutal; for months afterward, Kerrey says, he feared going to sleep because of the terrible nightmares that haunted him.

Kerrey laid the documents down. He was clearly unsettled not just by their contents but also by the realization that four members of his Seals team had already spoken about the mission. I had heard about Thanh Phong indirectly from one of those men, Gerhard Klann. Klann, the most experienced member of Kerrey's Seals squad, had been so disturbed by his memories of that night that he confided in a commander who, many years later, told the story to me. That in turn spurred the search for the documents. Those were found after a three-month examination of thousands of pages of classified and unclassified Seals reports and communiqués that had been boxed up since the war in the Navy's archives."

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/wo...

"Mr. Kerrey admitted 15 years ago that he and the team of commandos he led in the Mekong Delta in 1969 killed innocent women and children during a midnight raid in the village of Thanh Phong. Survivors of the attack said 20 civilians were killed, including 13 children and a pregnant woman. Mr. Kerrey was awarded a Bronze Star after his squad falsely reported that it had killed 21 Viet Cong guerrillas."

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely fascinating. It is a bit lengthy, but it was well worth every hour spent reading it. I learned so much about the sixties and our country during that time and the impact that it has had on our political climate today. It covers topics from JFK's assassination, the Vietnam war, drugs, women's rights, civil rights, MLK's assassination, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, music and Watergate and so much more.

What made the book so great was that Brokaw acknowledges from the beginning where he stands politically and that he has some bias because of it. But the variety of people he interviews and gives mini-bios of drown out any bias that could exist.

There are statements from people who worked closely with Ronald Reagan, statements from Karl Rove, Bill Clinton, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, Collin Powell, Jim Webb, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Warren Beaty, Kris Kristofferson... the list goes on and on. Each of these people gave their personal take on the sixties and how it has shaped their lives and professional carreers.

I learned more about Vietnam than I can remember learning in school. The strong words and opinions on that war by those who fought in the war and those that avoided the war are haunting.

And I learned so much about what effect the assassination of Bobby Kennedy had on the country. So much attention is given to JFK that I have never really known much about this man, but this book gives many interesting details about him and those that new him. His death came only three short months after King's and five years after his brother and the country as a whole was devastated. It was very eye-opening to read.

I also found out many random facts that I probably never would have known, like the fact that Karl Rove went to Olympus high school in Utah. Who knew?! He also attended the UofU but never actually got a college degree -and yet, look at the carreer he has had- amazing!
I fully recommend this book, it is only a small glimpse into what the sixtie were all about, but it has given me more of an understanding about that time period than just Hippies in tie-dyes singing songs and doing drugs.

[Rex · Rating 3 out of 5]

As one born in the 80’s, I welcomed this opportunity to gain a broad perspective of the 60’s. I listened to the audiobook, which is skillfully narrated by Brokaw himself.

Brokaw guides the narrative by introducing many individuals who lived during the period. Brokaw’s extensive interviews and connections make for intriguing listening.

At times, Brokaw recounts the events as they occurred in the 60’s. Other times, he inserts interviews from people who provide a retroactive perspective of the time period.

His interviews include numerous rock and roll icons, environmentalists, politicians, activists, television personalities and more.

The topics addressed include:

Rock and roll icons, Motown music
Woodstock
Drug culture
Civil Rights
MLK “I have a dream speech”
MLK assassination
Black Panthers
Civil Rights bill
Jackie Robinson
Watts riots
Vietnam
Working class fight a war they don’t understand
Upper class/college protests
The draft
Jim Webb and John McCain
NASA
Assassination of JFK and RFK
Feminist Movement
Betty Friedan
Gloria Steinem
Females in the workplace
Television
Late-night comedy
Women anchors

I walked away with a better understanding of the complexity and culture of the 60’s. Several questions from the 60’s seem pertinent today: To what extent does having the elite class largely immune from combat affect national policy and foreign relations? What effect would a mandatory draft have on this debate? What motivates our generation like the space race? What will be the effect of the youth culture of today?

[Toby Zidle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Tom Brokaw's newscasting and reporting style. I can't say as much for his writing. I found it rather dry and often preachy. It seemed overly repetitious. The book could have been better with 200 fewer pages.

I'm about Brokaw's age. I went to college and started my professional career in the 60s. I passed my draft physical and was classified 1-A for the draft until my employer got me a II-A deferment. I remember clearly the events Brokaw writes about.

Yet the book never 'grabbed' me. I often thought 'Is this book ever going to end?' -- like beating a dead horse.

Near the end, in discussing aging songwriters who had led the anti-Vietnam war protesters with their music, Brokaw seems to castigate them about their silence in taking a stand against the Iraq war.

Why should they protest the Iraq war? The Vietnam protests were by students (largely) who were likely to be sent against their will to fight a war they were against. The Iraq war was fought by a volunteer army. No one had to go unwillingly. This is a major difference barely mentioned by Brokaw. The songwriters were of a demographic segment personally very vulnerable at the time. At the time of the Iraq war, they had no vulnerability; thus, no incentive to protest.

The Iraq protests were lead by mothers like Cindy Sheehan, who had lost a son in the war. There lies the vulnerability -- not with the old songwriters.

Unable to bring the book into a current context, Brokaw's "Boom!" reads like an old memoir, not a living document.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a long book that was interesting most of the time, and at times highly insightful, but also reference-like, with many short interviews with individuals who were living in the 1960s, who offered their perspectives on events then and up to 2006 or 2007, especially about the war in Iraq, which came up several times.

One gets a sense that if the book were written in 2015, the nature of the interviews would be a bit different because of electing a black president, the economic meltdown, and the aftermath of the war in Iraq and the rise of ISIS, homosexual marriage, etc.

The world has changed a lot since the 1960s, and the look back through the eyes of people who were there, celebrities and politicians, musicians, shows that the idealism of the 1960s became diffuse and never went away, but was channeled into many different things.

The conservative backlash was the strangest thing to come out of the decade, brought on by a larger population that was simply tired of all the turmoil.

I liked the book, but was left a bit dissatisfied, longing for a lot more more depth, less journalistic flourishes. Even some of Brokaw's personal views seemed out of place. I almost wish he had created a short chapter summarizing his views like all the other people interviewed.

Another title for the book could have easily been "Everyone who survived the 1960s is a winner" or "The 1960s were fun, except when they weren't".

[Katrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of those who influenced and were influenced by the events of the sixties. Brokaw gives an effective survey of many different individuals and personalities, avoiding the polarized views of the decade, and rather showing the complexities of a rather pivotal ten years. The result is a whole lot of anecdotes, without much deep analysis. Written in an engaging style, weaving his own personal experience in and out of the profiles. One complaint is that the book focuses more on the famous and less on ordinary people. I would have liked to seen a few more profiles of urban, small town and suburban folk who were not in the spotlight, and how the decade influenced their lives. One good connection he draws is to the particular trends and similarities that relate the first decade of the 21st century to the 60s: with the US involved in a unwinnable, unpopular war and the Bobby Kennedy-esque inspiration that Obama gives to younger voters (2004 was the first election to turn out a record number of younger voters since 1971 [when the 26th Amendment made 18 the legal voting age:]). While some of the references to people or events went over my head (I was born in 1982!), this was still an interesting and worthwhile read.

[Joanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started well, and there were interesting tidbits throughout. Tom Brokaw has access to the movers and shakers of the 60's. He reconnects with people whom he interviewed during more turbulent times to discuss where they are now and what they make of it all. It's an interesting premise, but it ultimately falls short. First, at between 600 and 700 pages, it's just too long. I got tired of it before it ended. Secondly, when you close the book, you really don't know much more than you did when you opened it, other than that Tom Brokaw sits squarely in the middle of every 60s passion. The war? Well, it damaged a lot of people and probably wasn't a good idea. Women? Minorities? They have more opportunities now. Yes, well, nice ties are nice. I did not encounter new perspectives or find new insights. The zeitgeist of the time, which I remember as being characterized on all sides by anger and a sense of betrayal, was missing. All in all a disappointment.

[Jenni Paulsen Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came at just the right time for me. I had been feeling like the world was topsy-turvy after the 2016 Presidential election, but Brokaw's description of the devastating assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., and then Bobby Kennedy helped me put things in perspective. Reading about how not just the Democratic Party, but the U.S. and the world at large, felt the shock and tragedy of these deaths.

This book is a history class in and of itself. Brokaw is so damn smart, and knows so much because of his life as a reporter and news anchor, not to mention all of his contacts and resources, Boom! is just jam-packed with information, quotes, and thought-provoking commentary from both Brokaw and his reunion cast of 60s notables. Politics, music, social change, women's issues... Boom! covers everything. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

[Paula Hagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

2013: I listened to this on CD a few years ago and liked it so much I made my own copy. So I'm listening to it again for a second time - am loving it just as much as the first time.

*****************

2008: I listened to this on CD and was mesmerized throughout. I'm still reeling from the nostalgia with which the stories in this book have filled me. I was 13 in 1968, THE year of the 60's decade, so I'm really a 70's kid. I remember much about the late 60's, but never had a context in which to pull it all together historically, and this book did it for me. Brokaw was everywhere when all of it happened, and he knows everyone. The book is decidedly Democratic in both its presentation and bias, so I'm not sure how staunch Republicans might view it, but I loved it.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wars, riots, assassinations, a sexual revolution, a civil rights movement, Women’s Lib and a really cool sound-track: What’s not to love about the ’60s? Tom Brokaw’s excellent book, ‘Boom! Voices of the Sixties,’ is a Sociology-101 diamond mine: A comprehensive collection of thought provoking, well written, personal vignettes of first-hand experiences. An oral history of an incredible time.

There’s plenty to ruminate and reminisce about in its 612 pages. Especially for those of us of the pre-septuagenarian set who were already (at least marginally) adults during the period it covers. I’d recommend this book to any and all oral history buffs, and to anyone interested in the period.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review title: From observer to participant

Brokaw gives us his view of the 1960s from five key dimensions:

Racism and assassination

Politics from progressives to the silent majority

The Vietnam War and it's effects on politics and culture at home

Women in the home, the bedroom, and the workplace

Popular music and its political and cultural impact

all centered on the pivotal year of 1968 as viewed from a "40th class reunion" as Americans prepared to vote for the first African-American president, deal with a new proxy war in Iraq, and understand bitter partisan political divides in light of those lessons learned.

While his huge bestseller The Greatest Generation reads like an observer's journal with oral-history vibes, this reads more like a memoir from an active participant in the life and times of a generation. Part One is titled "Something's Happening Here" as Brokaw weaves stories and interviews with 1960s icons in and around his own memories. Part Two might well be (but isn't) titled "What it is ain't exactly clear" to complete the Buffalo Springfield song lyric, as Brokaw writing in 2008 looks at those who made it to the 40th class reunion and wonders who succeeded, who survived, and who won't make it to the next one.

He brackets the time period with Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" in August 1963 as the end of the 1950s, John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22 that year as the beginning of the 60s, and Richard Nixon's resignation in the face of Watergate in 1974 as its end (p. xvi-xvii; see timeline of major events p. 617-622). In between were the many political, military, cultural, and personal changes and challenges that made the decade so memorable and significant that (writing in 2007-2008 before the election where Brokaw tagged Hillary Clinton and eventual winner Obama as the most likely to succeed) Brokaw quotes Clinton asking him " 'Have you cracked the code yet?' referring to the complex legacy of the time, filled as it is with so many contradictions, interpretations, romantic notions, myths, and harsh realities." (p. 404)

With Brokaw's 40th reunion concept now 15 years in the rear view mirror I found this book most interesting for foreshadowing of how the impact of the 1960s assessed in 2008 remain drivers today. Brokaw references Peggy Noonan, Republican strategist and speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, who "worries about the politically obsessed in her party, those who, she says, get their energy from hate. They cannot engage in honorable debate because they cannot see the honor of the other side. That was an affliction of the far left in the Sixties that appears to haunt the right forty years later." (p. 32). Brokaw wonders if the 2008 election will "get beyond the politics of separation and get to the politics of unifying purpose?" (p. 235). Vietnam veteran, Naval Academy graduate, Secretary of the Navy, and Virginia senator James Webb sees the divide as one of class, a "sense of entitlement that came out of American elites." (p. 182). Intriguingly, Brokaw, following Webb, points to the "move to an all-volunteer military force as a result of the protests against the draft during Vietnam" (p. 567) as a driver of this class divide: "the elites not having a sense of duty to their country, while the lower classes, for reasons of economics and family tradition, continue to sign up and march in the direction they're pointed." (p. 183)

Not all the long impacts of the 1960s are political. Brokaw points to the attention to health and fitness as "beneficial consequences of the emphasis on youth and staying young that emerged" then (p. 575). He references (at heart a journalist, Brokaw tells his story through his interview subjects) Kevin Phillips, a Republican political strategist and writer, who "acknowledges that there is a large and growing secular culture in the United States" that yet remains "no match for the Republican coalition" of evangelical Christians that grew out of the 1960s (p. 571). Brokaw summarizes the divide:

It is generally those on the right, vigorous defenders of the free market In the economy, who are the most judgmental and censorious when it comes to what is available on television and radio, on the big screen, and on iTunes. Equally ironic, it is those on the left who embrace human rights and dignity who are the most timid about criticizing misogynist or racist lyrics or violent videos. The children of peace and love rarely rally against the mindless, violent overtones of some rap songs or video games. (p. 560-561)

The subsequent 15 years have not closed the gap or resolved the irony. Far from it. The election of President Obama did not end systemic or personal racism. The presence of Donald Trump in politics and his election as President drove a wedge into the divide to spread it further and personify the "energy from hate" that Noonan saw then. Perhaps labor activist Dolores Huerta who Brokaw quoted in 2008 captured the lingering impact of the 1960s the best: "I think the attacks on immigrants, gays, on women's reproductive rights are distractions from the real issues . . . the economy and the income gaps." (p. 425)

This is a worthy follow-up to The Greatest Generation that benefits from Brokaw's role as a key participant of both the 1960s and it's 40th anniversary. It is valuable for what it says about 2008, and for how 2008 and 1968 still impact us in 2023.

[Runningfox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book to read for anyone who is old enough to remember the 1960's and a great book for those too young..This book brought back many memories both good memories and memories of troubled times..Sometimes Tom does get a little wordy and drags out some things but overall this is a terrific book and if for nothing else should be read for its historical facts..I very highly recommend it..

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I WILL finish this book, just not right now. Right now I'm on break from school and I really just want to read some light and fun material. So far the book has been very interesting just a bit heavy at the moment.

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent odyssey through the Sixties---the music, the movements, Vietnam, the political leaders, and those who shaped our nation. Tom Brokaw does a fantastic job looking back and evaluating the impact of the Sixties over 40 years later. An awesome read!

[Kelsey Carlile · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was fantastic and vivid. For someone who was born in 92 this book gave me a good idea of what the 60's were like.

[Jodi Boe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many things come to mind when the sixties era is mentioned; Vietnam, the rise of feminism, civil rights, Woodstock, youth uprising. It’ s no question that the sixties were a tumultuous, but important, time in American history. The aftershocks of the sixties “boom” are still felt today. Tom Brokaw masterfully stitches together stories of those who made the sixties what they were and their reflections forty years on.

What makes Brokaw’s Boom so unique is that those that were change makers in the ‘60s shared their thoughts on whether or not their actions in the 60s were effective, warranted, or still in effect today. It’s one thing to know what happened in an era, another to look back and understand whether or not the intended effect was achieved by those history makers. Oddly enough, it seemed that the Baby Boomers who made the sixties what they were calmed down after the decade ended with the tethers of adulthood and responsibility. Their views looking back, therefore, looked upon the sixties as a time of youthful ignorance.

Major themes throughout the book included what a woman’s place in the world is and what it should be, Vietnam veterans and their reintroduction into American society after combat, the inequality between those that were of privilege and those that were not in the sixties. One of the stories that stuck with me the most in this book was a story of a college student who was able to gain a medical deferment from the draft by not eating much in the weeks leading up to his medical physical, causing him to fail the physical and stay out of combat. While reboarding the bus with fellow college classmates, many of whom were also able to gain medical deferments, he watched another bus pull into the facility, one from an inner city neighborhood of Boston. A majority of those students would pass their physicals and be deployed to combat, not knowing that there were actions they could take to fail their physicals
(think, Trump and bone spurs).

Throughout the book, stories abound of the inequality that lead to the eruption of public anger throughout the decade. Many strides in policy were made during the sixties to assuage inequality, I.e. the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, and affirmative action. Ironically, this generation that advocated for so much change in the sixties are now the generation that has produced leaders like George W. Bush and Donald Trump and has had trouble curbing carbon dioxide emissions, favoring corporate rights over the future of the globe. I mean, this is the generation that Millennials now mock for their inability to tolerate change with the phrase, “ OK, Boomer”. It seems that many of those interviewed for this book now look back onto the sixties with some cynocism. Is that what happens to all of us as we age? We become more cynical and lose our hope of enacting change? Or do we just change the way we enact change as we age, by having and raising children, amassing fortunes and using the funds to enact our political will, or becoming those in power?

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. I listened to its entirety on audiobook. I would highly recommend this book to others interested in the sixties and American history.

[Tracey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I give up. It’s Tom Brokaw, I thought. I don’t know that much about the sixties compared to other eras, I thought; I missed all but a couple of months of the decade, so – here we go.

First of all, the writing was not what I expected. It didn’t feel like it was at the level where I would expect Tom Brokaw’s voice to be, after all the acclaim I've heard about his books and the amount of time I've spent listening to him (although, granted, he normally read someone else's script). It wasn’t stupid, quite; it wasn’t badly written, the format was interesting (part memoir, a smattering of interviews bookended by the histories of the interviewees, bookended in their turn by personal reflection); it was just … not there.

So, the 60’s… “You say you want a revolution”. The book’s title is “Boom!” because there was an echo of revolution in almost every aspect of American life. Equal rights in all venues, based on gender and race and maybe even just starting to look at gender preference … America’s role in Vietnam … Everything was turmoil and upheaval.

Let me put my point of view in perspective. In the past few years, I worked at the front desk of an office, with little contact with the rest of the crew; then in an office with a very Christian office manager and a mostly grown-up staff who were primarily interested in just doing their jobs; then in an office with three men. I was unemployed for almost a year before being hired to my current place. Thinking back, it has been something like 15 years since I worked in an office full of women, and I can say based on where I am now that things have not changed for the better. And in this book I can see the seeds for the coarsening, the self-centeredness, the escalation of crudity, the sheer loudness.

What made me quit the book, what brought to a peak the traces of frustration I was feeling with the attitudes of the 60’s and the changes wrought, was the tale of one of Brokaw’s subjects in the section on equal rights for women, Dr. Judith Rodin. She fought her way to a position as a researcher at Columbia University – only to have her work stalled by anti-war protests that locked down the campus. Months’ worth of research was lost. Why? Because her research involved a number of lab animals. I shudder to think. When the protesters locked down a campus, they literally locked it up – locked everyone out – prevented access to any buildings. Including the science building where this woman’s test subjects were slowly starving to death. The situation was described thusly: “So I lost all my research, about a year’s worth. I learned there are no easy answers in life, that loyalties can be divided [because she was against the war, but wanted to keep working]. It also taught me perseverance, because I had to get rid of the dead animals and start all over again.”

Is that really what the 60’s were like? God knows how many (or what kind of) animals, starving to death in their cages because a bunch of entitled little idiots felt their protests would be weakened if they let someone in to tend them, and that fact wasn’t even a blip on their radar? I know, I know – the lives of the animals were irrelevant anyway; scientific research is rarely good for its test subjects, and of course the very most important thing about any of this was that the project was in the hands of a woman (who maybe refused to show any kind of concern over the animals lest it indicate too much girlyness?) – but at least if they had died in the course of the research it might have meant something. This? This smacks of a cold petulance. And no one, not the protesters, not the scientists, not Tom Brokaw, seems to have noticed.

And what, exactly, is the point of shutting down a campus? Did I miss something, and Columbia was entrenched in the politics of the war? So, apparently, I did, or Brokaw did – Wiki: “In early March 1967, a Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society activist named Bob Feldman discovered documents in the International Law Library detailing Columbia's institutional affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a weapons research think-tank affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense.” Fine. Plus they were building a gymnasium that was going to be segregated, so, yay – twofer. But here’s the thing. How many students went to Columbia in 1968? How many were involved in the protests? How many just wanted to get on with the education which they had paid for, or get on with their own work (and care and feeding of lab animals)? And what, in the end, did the riots accomplish?

And then there’s this sort of thing: “Violence continued into the following day with students armed with sticks battling with officers. Frank Gucciardi, a 34 year old police officer, was permanently disabled when a student jumped onto him from a second story window, breaking his back.” No. Absolutely not. “We’re protesting for peace – let’s attack the cops with sticks!” What the hell? Seriously, what the hell?

In the end, my impression of the decade is of the clueless leading the blind fighting the fossilized, of on the one hand idealists and contrarians embarking on a campaign to, on the one hand, right wrongs – and fumblingly going about it in all the wrong ways – and, on the other hand, to upend every aspect of life apparently for the simple sake of doing so. Of course hindsight is much clearer than anything they had the ability for, but so much could have been accomplished. And wasn’t, because of wrong-headedness, corruption, cupidity, stupidity, and misdirected idealism.

As I mentioned earlier, I see the beginnings of so many terrible things in these interviews. There is the rise of vulgarity as commonplace, unremarked. There is the sickening movement, on the rise this year, of protesters provoking law enforcement to violence, purely so that the provokers can point to the result and say, “See? That’s what the pigs are like!” (Oh, and then so that in the resulting chaos there can be looting – free stuff! Yay!) There is the strange recipe of entrenched secrecy within the government blended with the public’s awareness that secrets are being kept.

I don’t know how relevant this is, but it came to mind while thinking about the protests and sit-ins and so on, and it won’t go away. I’m a fan of The Walking Dead, and especially of the character Daryl Dixon. And, since no one’s entirely safe in the zombie apocalypse, there’s a meme out there which is, succinctly, “If Daryl dies we riot.” And my understanding is that TWD’s creator, Robert Kirkman, has responded snarkily along the lines of “The more I hear that, the more I want to kill him off”. And I can’t help thinking that this sort of attitude, expanded and amplified, is an encapsulation of the 60’s. The more the scruffy counterculture protested and yelled and disrupted, the tighter the powers that be buttoned up and battened down.

In the end, my opinion of the decade is only solidified: I’m glad I missed it. And I’m at least as pissed off to have to live with the consequences as they were to be living with what their predecessors left them.

But this should be a review of the book about the 60’s, not the 60’s themselves. And, in the end, I’m trying to separate my opinion of a decade I’m glad I missed from my opinion of “Boom!” – and I still feel fine with giving “Boom!” one star. The book was published in 2007, before Barack Obama was more than a possibility of a candidate. As a history of the 60’s, one would think it would be fairly timeless – but it isn’t. The current political atmosphere – current as of 2007 – is referenced several times, and, in short, the book has not aged well. It is irritatingly dated.

[Roger Smitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his Introduction, Brokaw tells us that the questions he asks in the 1960’s to 1990’s. There is a thread (have to look for it) in the book that explains the growth of a “…newlywed and a rookie journalist” who watched and reported what was happening. His led him to wrote a book in 2007 about “What has happened to us? Have we lost our way?”

His 500+ pages (plus a comprehensive index) covers well where we where in 2007. Brokow prepares the readers with “Will you children and grandchildren have better lives than us?” He adds “I am not a sociologist or psychologist. I am a journalist, an observer and a synthesizer… “

His strategy, he says, is to write so that we can see the “furniture or …photography or … favorite places that link the past, the present, and the future.” xv

“As a journalist and a fully engaged citizen, I am both excited and more than a little unnerved by the magnitude of the changes we have seen and the prospect of those to come.”

It’s a 500+ page read of his experience in American history. (It’s good to have good books in the of the Condix 19.

On first look, it’s easy to dismiss this book as something we should take the time to read a book from 15 years ago. Of course it’s nice to understand the problems of today have strong roots in life today in the US.

What works well is that Brokow writes on paper the same way he (or his news team) wrote for television. His relatively short sentences and a rhythm of writing move well. The 13 chapters go as deeply as 1968 and Vietnam (the two best chapters) up to the turn of the 21st century.

Unfortunately, he sets the stories about leaders who were/are leaders into two segregated to two chapters. They needed to be found in all of the chapters.

He locks down his themes by labeling pieces around the famous people. The good part is that he cuts across all of the public views of TV news as well as people in office.

The book will be useful (and engaging) for those of us who saw on screen the things he reported as news. It does more than recall those days. We can see the themes that he lays out and how they continue to define how we understand news. The history majors will like it. Communication majors can see how TV did something audiences.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was about a time a few decades before I was born, but I recognized a lot of the pop culture references and some of the big-name politicians. I think my biggest take-away was when one of his interviewees said something along the lines of: "We all wanted a change, but the generation before us were too scared to stick their necks out and be the leaders we needed, so we had to figure it it out for ourselves." ---and so-- "The personal became political." Personal righteousness became the motivating force behind legislative action.

My second take-away was how some of them (being in their sixties/seventies at the time of the interviews) viewed the future. Some noting how divided the country was (this, in 2006?2007? - HA!) and how they feared it getting worse, but also hoped that something would bring the country back together (such as Senator Obama getting elected president). One man even said he thought removing the draft had only widened the gap between the military families and academic elitists. Some reflected that the lack of anti-war protest against the Iraq war (versus the Vietnam war) was due in part to "voluntary service" only affecting an inviable few (rather than country as a whole) and was seen as more "wasteful/unnecessary" than anything else.

And my last take-away was how pretty much all of the artists felt that the music/art/film "back then" used to actually *mean* something, but now its all about "money over message" --What eye-candy will make the most money?-- and all the popular books nowadays are all about making *yourself* happy with the "best" diet/job/house/partner/affirmations/hobbies, etc.

I think it's always been about that, a little, but still it is interesting to think about their broader perspectives in terms of seeing a country go from one extreme to another in just a short time.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the hallmarks of Tom Brokaw was his ability to present news to the masses without offering the slightest glimpse of what his political leanings are. It’s a suave skill that is lost in todays media.

However, once you dive in to “Boom” the reader is left with little doubt about Brokaw’s political ideology. Is that good? Is that bad? You decide. However, the prevailing liberal opining of Mr. Brokaw casts a shadow over the editorial efforts he’s made to gather a wide variety of source material and present it to the reader as an unbiased collection of stories of the 60’s.

This books reads like a how to manual on how to fix the Democratic Party of the early 21st century. Which is fine. But, as the reader will find obvious, it quickly dates the collection as a whole. The contempt Brokaw shows towards the right is palpable and overshadows what could have truly been a great collection of insight into a turbulent time in American history.

Brokaw lost me when he admonishes the right for their so-called misogynistic views on women yet in the same creepy breath can’t stop sexualizing and objectifying, of all people, Gloria Steinem.

Good quotes. Poor editing. End of story.

Make love, not war.