Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster

"For the first time in American history, a generation is worse off than their parents. With their overthrow of tradition and authority, the Baby Boomers claim to have been humanity's greatest liberators, but their children would happily trade that so-called liberation for a little less debt, the chance to own a home before fifty, and a shot at extracting some commitment from the bosses and romantic partners who view their relationships as temporary. In this book, millennial journalist Helen Andrews callsthe Boomers to account. With wit and conviction, she presents profiles of luminaries who promised much but failed to deliver, including Camille Paglia, Aaron Sorkin, Steve Jobs, and Sonia Sotomayor. In covering the mighty works of these titans, Andrews reveals how their lives and their generational idiosyncrasies have secretly deformed--in plain sight--our society and our successive generations"--
Examines the legacy of the six prominent Baby Boomers, including Steve Jobs, Aaron Sorkin, Sonya Sotomayor and Camille Paglia, and how their effect on the world has often been contrary to their original good intentions.
For the first time in American history, a generation is worse off than their parents. Who is to blame?With two recessions and a botched pandemic under their belt, the Boomers are their children's favorite punching bag. But is the hatred justified? Is the destruction left in their wake their fault or simply the luck of the generational draw?In Boomers, essayist Helen Andrews addresses the Boomer legacy with scrupulous fairness and biting wit. Following the model of Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians, she profiles six of the Boomers' brightest and best. She shows how Steve Jobs tried to liberate everyone's inner rebel but unleashed our stultifying digital world of social media and the gig economy. How Aaron Sorkin played pied piper to a generation of idealistic wonks. How Camille Paglia corrupted academia while trying to save it. How Jeffrey Sachs, Al Sharpton, and Sonya Sotomayor wanted to empower the oppressed but ended up empowering new oppressors.Ranging far beyond the usual Beatles and Bill Clinton clichés, Andrews shows how these six Boomers' effect on the world has been tragically and often ironically contrary to their intentions. She reveals the essence of Boomerness: they tried to liberate us, and instead of freedom they left behind chaos.