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Title details for The Baby Boom by P. J. O'Rourke - Available

The Baby Boom

How It Got That Way, And It Wasn't My Fault, And I'll Never Do It Again

by P. J. O'Rourke
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The New York Times–bestselling author looks at the sixties generation, and how he and his seventy-five million accomplices made America what it is today.
 
A onetime editor-in-chief of National Lampoon who also spent years reporting for Rolling Stone and The Atlantic Monthly, P. J. O’Rourke is known as a conservative-minded political humorist and author of such bestsellers as Parliament of Whores. Not everyone knows that he was once a dedicated Marxist hippie type—living up to every stereotype of his postwar generation.
 
In this book, at once a social history and a personal memoir (albeit with some impaired memory involved), he explores, with both fiercely biting wit and fondness, the mess that the baby boomers made, and the impact they’ve had on our world.
 
“Dry wit that makes every chapter a delight . . . As a cultural analyst, O’Rourke’s ability and willingness to simultaneously lampoon and celebrate himself and his generation are unequaled.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“A terrific American memoir, in tone a beguiling mix of Jean Shepherd and Animal House.” —Christopher Buckley, author of Boomsday
 
“Simultaneously hilarious and brainy . . . holds a cracked magnifying glass up to the generation of Americans born between the end of World War II and the early 1960s. Sifting through demographic and economic data and combining the results with generous portions of personal memories, O’Rourke finds much to deplore in the boomer character, but even more to cherish and celebrate.” —Chicago Tribune
 
“A comedic and caustic cautionary tale for future generations—and, for those of us who are Boomers, a nostalgic and hilarious diversion.” —NPR

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 17, 2013

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780802193070

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780802193070
      • File size: 4842 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 23, 2013
      Prolific political and social commentator O’Rourke, author of 17 books, including the bestselling Parliament of Whores, has created here a thoughtful portrait of the baby boomer generation and what its members have done for the American way of life, and “the way we talked everybody into letting us get away with it.” While O’Rourke acknowledges that sweeping generalizations about millions of Americans do not always apply, he seems to feel comfortable enough standardizing boomers at large as creatures of self-interest, hypocrisy, and hysteria. But even while discussing annual income and per capita GDP, O’Rourke maintains the dry wit that makes every chapter a delight, even if the picture they form is incomplete. The hilarity is helped along by plenty of anecdotes from his own life as a boomer, including the tale of when O’Rourke’s underground newspaper was occupied overnight by Balto-Cong radicals. As a cultural analyst, O’Rourke’s ability and willingness to simultaneously lampoon and celebrate himself and his generation are unequaled.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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