Boomers

The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster

By: Helen Andrews

Narrated by: Nicole Parnell

"Baby Boomers (and I confess I am one): prepare to squirm and shake your increasingly arthritic little fists. For here comes essayist Helen Andrews."--Terry Castle

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.

Critic reviews

“Helen Andrews has written the first book to treat the Baby Boomers not just as youthful dreamers but also as ruthless wielders of power, and to account for what their dreams have cost us. A groundbreaking reassessment of the last generation by one of the bravest and best writers of this one.”—Christopher Caldwell, author of The Age of Entitlement

“Baby boomers (and I confess I am one): prepare to squirm and shake your increasingly arthritic little fists. For here comes essayist Helen Andrews, incendiary new critic of left-wing pieties, youthful scourge of 'disastrous' sixties idealism and its legacies, and all-round millennial conservative whippersnapper par excellence. Even when infuriating or wrong—and Andrews can be both—she is irresistibly intelligent, writes like a dream, and asks questions so uncomfortable and fundamental that the bravery, honesty, and moral seriousness of her approach cannot be gainsaid. Boomers—shall we go there?—is an essential book for our woebegotten time. Excuse me, folks, while I kiss the sky.”—Terry Castle, Walter A. Haas Professor of the Humanities at Stanford University, author of The Professor

“As a committed but self-hating Baby Boomer, I've read Helen Andrews' work with an uneasy mixture of trepidation and admiration—admiration because she combines a luminous intelligence with a wit that's as glistening and sharp as a straight razor, and trepidation because I realize she is about to turn those weapons on me and my kind. We deserve it, of course, but that doesn't make it any less scary.”—Andrew Ferguson, staff writer at The Atlantic, author of Crazy U and Land of Lincoln

We watched them destroy America.

Our parents gave their all and saved America. They made America great. We just sat bye and watched the left destroy the pillars of this country. Thomas Sowell addresses the awful policies decisions in “Dismantling America “,Helen puts a face on it and a living memory. Wonderful book.

Solid arguments delivered by semi-literate

It’s hard to believe this narrator was chosen for such an important book. She has no sense of English style and cannot pronounce words as simple as “biopic” and many others

The worst generation in history

Pretty insightful and fair in its assessment. If you are an establishment-PMC democrat who thinks kamala harris and pete buttiegig are good acceptable (potential) candidates then you will both really dislike this book and absolutely should read it. You can detect the author’s clear bias towards social-cultural conservatism but it generally doesn’t detract from her arguments if you a wholistic and reasonably non-partisan knowledge of US history and politics.

What does OK Boomer really mean?

I never would have guessed that a Generation Z writer could write so succinctly and honestly about the Boomers. Yes, Boomers will probably hate this book. She selects 6 people whom she believes embody everything wrong with Boomerism. She does show some sympathy for a few of her devils. The tone is never derogatory. It is a rational and empirical take down of the beliefs and actions of these people. The death of truth in our society is probably a collective action of generations not just Boomers. Based on Andrews detailed analysis, it probably started with the Boomers' cognitive dissonance between their alleged good intentions and their actual reprehensible behavior. She actually made be feel a little sympathy for Steve Jobs and Al Sharpton.

She is a political writer but the book and characters are not overly political. While the 6 people are all conventional American left-wingers, politics is only discussed to demonstrate how they use it to get their way and weaken existing institutions.

Again Boomers will hate this book. Anyone else with an open mind will find it as a warning to do better with our intentions and help lessen our narcissism in the interest of future generations. She also demonstrated how OK Boomer may become a hate crime.

Do not miss this great read.

Extremely well researched and provocative with lots of great insights into the mentality of the boomers, the time in which they came to adulthood, and the character of the people profiled. Truly a must read.