Courtesy St. Martin's Press
|
Web Exclusive. . .
Additional Questions for Reading Groups
By Lindsay Mergens, January 2006, January 2006
If you'd like to discuss Leonard Steinhorn's The Greater Generation with your book club, these questions will help spark a lively dialogue
|
1. Did any of the accomplishments of the postwar baby boom generation that Steinhorn describes come as a surprise to you?
2. The author makes this statement on page 17: "To Boomer critics, if our nation had only stuck with Greatest Generation values—duty, faith, and deference—we would have become a stronger, stable, more united, and less divided nation. It was Boomers, they claim, who roiled society and stirred things up." What do you think about this criticism? Is there any truth to it?
3. In chapter two, the author suggests that the rise of conservatism today is more fiction than fact. "Even Greatest Generation Americans—those most resistant to Boomer culture—have been inching ever so slightly away from their old insular social values and toward the Baby Boomer norm. To some extent, and with obvious exceptions, we are all becoming Baby Boomers now" (page 29). Do you agree? Why or why not?
4. In describing the Boomers' influence on social norms, the author writes: "Yes, Boomers are a determined generation, and they've made their share of bullheaded mistakes, but it's a determination unremittingly targeted at roadblocks to opportunity and bigotry in any form" (page 42). To what mistakes is the author referring? How might these mistakes have contributed to the Boomers' reputation?
5. The author cites studies that show virtually no evidence of a generation gap between Boomers and their children, "nothing close to the generational chasm that separated Baby Boomers and the Greatest Generation" (page 38). Do you perceive this to be true in your own life, whether with your children, your parents, or other members of your family?
6. How would you answer these questions posed by the author on page 244: "What is this generation's unfinished business? What should Boomers do for their final act on the public stage? What did they start in the '60s that they should try to complete now?"
|
