Preface ix
folks: boomers have no interest in going gently into that good night (or
even to a retirement community in Florida), so we all should get used to
the idea of having them around for at least the next couple of decades. This
is actually a very good thing, this book shows, as some of boomers’ great-
est contributions to society lie ahead. Millennials no doubt have a great
future ahead of them, and my wish is that they achieve an equally great set
of things in their own lifetimes.
Often overlooked in such hostile accusations and misinformed predic-
tions are the startling array of achievements baby boomers have realized
since the fi rst one was born a little over 70 years ago. In my nonbusi-
ness life, I am a cultural historian and have written many books in which
boomers have served as the protagonists of the 20th century. Growing up
in the Cold War, when it was commonly believed that the world could
blow up at any point, gave boomers a sense of urgency to accomplish
great things, many of which they actually did. Boomers fought bravely
in the Vietnam War, led a cultural revolution grounded in the noble ideas
of peace and equality, and then embarked on careers that propelled this
nation to become the most powerful and wealthiest in civilization. Along
the way, they popularized if not downright invented things like rock ’n’
roll, the computer, and the Internet, all the while giving more money away
to worthy causes than any previous generation. Boomers were undeni-
ably fortunate to have come of age during the latter half of the amazing
“American Century”; they greatly benefited from the incredible scientific
and technological strides made in the postwar years, and happened to be
in the right place at the right time when the nation was ready to reinvent
itself in the late 1960s. Launching and continuing their careers in the eco-
nomically advantageous 1980s and 1990s was also good timing, and the
steadily upward tick of the stock market and escalation of real estate prices
over the last decade and a half has only added to the net worth of many
boomers.
While this book is in some sense a celebration of boomer culture and
rejoinder against the rising tide of vitriol directed at the group, I rec-
ognize the generation has not fully lived up to its potential. Many have
abused their physical selves in a manner to make them as a group less
healthy than they could and perhaps should have been at an advanced age
given their obsession with “naturalness” when young. (“I would have
treated my body better had I known I would have lived this long” is
a commonly heard refrain.) As well, some of boomers’ preferences in
popular culture over the years were questionable at best (I personally
apologize for disco and the urban cowboy craze of the late 1970s and
