This book would be an odd and sprawling compendium were it not for the unifying effect of Mr. “Boom!” is as interesting for the effects it can catalyze as for those it actually describes. But he approaches this magnum opus with warmth, curiosity and conviction, the same attributes that worked so well for his “Greatest Generation.” And he will succeed in prompting readers to step back and do some soul searching. Nor is he the most reductive: Although “Boom!” roams all over the map (and loosely defines the ’60s as the period from 1963 to 1974), it arrives at few definite conclusions. Brokaw is not the first, last or most incisive writer to take stock of 1968 and its youthquake. He also takes on the perilous job of wondering what it all means. Brokaw serves as a latter-day Rip Van Winkle, awakening to marvel at four decades’ worth of changes in the book’s dozens of interviewees. Although he describes his role in this process as that of moderator and class president, there’s more to it than that. It stages a virtual reunion of America’s Class of 1968, accompanied by a full spectrum of opinions about the impact of that pivotal year. Tom Brokaw’s “Boom!” orchestrates a baby-boom epiphany.
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