Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today »

Tom Brokaw is the author of four bestsellers: The Greatest Generation, The Greatest Generation Speaks, An Album of Memories, and A Long Way from Home. From 1976 to 1981 he anchored Today on NBC. He was the sole anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw from 1983 to 2004.

The author of the bestselling The Greatest Generation takes us on a tour of the turbulent 1960s, blending his personal reflections with firsthand accounts from the people that lived through it.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

[Brokaw] approaches this magnum opus with warmth, curiosity and conviction, the same attributes that worked so well for his Greatest Generation. And he will succeed in prompting readers to step back and do some soul searching. Boom! is as interesting for the effects it can catalyze as for those it actually describes. This book would be an odd and sprawling compendium were it not for the unifying effect of Mr. Brokaw's companionable style. His writing makes up in intimacy what it lacks in fancy footwork, even if a quota of '60s cultural boilerplate is part of the package…On the page, as he is on the screen, Mr. Brokaw is a canny, perceptive interviewer with an honest interest in what other people have to say.

Introduction: What Was That All About?     xiii
Something's Happening Here     1
A Loss of Innocence     3
He Had a Dream     39
Representative John Lewish and Julian Bond     47
Reverend Andrew Young     55
Tom Turnipseed     62
Reverend Thomas Gilmore     69
The Fracture of 1968: The Noisy Masses versus the Silent Majority     79
Jeff Greenfield and Sam Brown     84
Mayor Richard M. Daley and William Daley     103
Pat Buchanan     110
A Place Called Vietnam     127
We Had to Destroy the Village: Captain Gene Kimmel and Dr. Les Gelb     128
Married to Vietnam: Tom and Nellie Coakley     141
Oh, Canada: Jeffry House     155
Semper Fi: Senator James Webb, Mike "Mac" McGarvey, and James Fallows     163
A Woman's Place     189
Nora Ephron     197
Gloria Steinem     203
Joan Growe     208
Muriel Kraszewski     214
Dr. Judith Rodin     218
Carla Hills and Joan Didion     224
Lissa Muscatine     232
Something's Happening Here     241
Dr. David Smith     243
Judy Collins     249
Arlo Guthrie and Tim Russert     253
Jann Wenner     259
Kris Kristofferson     262
Berry Gordy     267
Woody Miller     275
Aftershocks: Consequences, Intended and Otherwise     283
A Dream Fulfilled and a Dream Deferred     287
Charlene Stimley Priester and Ouida Barnett Atkins     297
Stan Sanders     310
Dr Shelby Steele     319
Dr. Cleveland Sellers     329
The Reagan Revolution and the Democrats' Identity Crisis     339
President Bill Clinton and Speaker Newt Gingrich     341
Senator George McGovern and Senator Gary Hart     359
Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney     369
Pat Buchanan and Senator Hillary Clinton     393
Second Thoughts and the Long View     406
Sam Brown     406
Jeremy Larner     408
Carl Pope     409
Ed Crane     417
Dolores Huerta     421
The War Without End     429
David Cadwell     431
General Colin Powell     435
General Wayne Downing     440
Senator John McCain      447
Senator Bob Kerrey     452
Senator Chuck Hagel     460
Dr. Charles Desmond     465
Ron Armella     469
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Peter Davis     474
I Am Woman     481
Jane Pauley     486
Anne Taylor Fleming     494
Linda Greenhouse     498
Dorothy Rabinowitz     502
Dr. Ruth Simmons     505
Dr. Susan Miller     510
Like a Rolling Stone     515
James Taylor     517
Paul Simon     523
Jann Wenner     530
Warren Beatty     532
Lawrence Kasdan     535
Lorne Michaels     541
Dick Gregory     548
Tommy Smothers     552
Leonard Riggio     554
Reflections: Seeing What Connects     563
The View from the Moon     565
Garry Trudeau     568
Other Voices     570
Joan Baez and Don McLean     579
Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins     586
Jack Weinberg     591
Stewart Brand     597
Captain Jim Lovell     605
Acknowledgments      613
Timeline     617
Permissions and Credits     623
Index     629