Virginia Festival of the Book

The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy

Senior Center - Thursday March 18th, 4:00 p.m.

Leonard Steinhorn, author of The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy, will discuss how Boomers created equality and freedom for minorities and women, and dignity for all ... and will continue to contribute to society in their retirement years.

Steinhorn is a professor of communication at American University, where he teaches politics, media, and culture. A former political speechwriter and strategist, Steinhorn currently serves as the political analyst for WTTG in Washington, D.C. His writing has been featured in several publications, including The Washington Post, Salon, and Politico. He is also coauthor of By the Color of Our Skin, a critically acclaimed book on race relations.

In this definitive book on how the Baby Boom Generation changed America, Steinhorn argues that while the Greatest Generation deserves our praise for surviving the Depression and fighting in World War II, the Baby Boomers are in many ways as great a generation—if not greater—for fighting a great cultural war to free America from its prejudices, inequalities, and fears. In the 1950s, women stayed at home, minorities were denied their dignity, homosexuality was a crime, and anybody who marched to a different drummer was labeled a threat. Today, because of the Boomers, we have a much more open, tolerant, kinder America.

It is fashionable to mock Boomers as self absorbed, materialistic, and destined to drain economic resources to breaking point in their retirement. But during their working years, their cynicism toward big business and the establishment inspired them to develop the personal computer and the World Wide Web, which have given more people prosperity and a voice in their own destiny than any earlier technology.

And aging boomers are not slowing down. Bill Gates gives his fortune and time to sick children. Bill Clinton devotes himself full time to charities. Even nonceleb elder boomers retain their youthful distrust of “the establishment” and are using their time, energy, and expertise to further the environmental and community-based organizations their generation helped establish.

Far from being an Age Tsunami, as doomsayers predict, aging Boomers, the best-educated generation in history, are combining the wisdom of years with the spirit of youth to continue to leave a positive mark on American society.

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