Baby Boomers and Popular Culture

The Boomers are the generation that changed everything from economics to politics to popular culture. This book examines the myriad ways and long-reaching consequences of the now fully grown up Baby Boomer generation on America.Once upon a time the members of the Baby Boomer generation were young idealistic and hungry to change the world. And they did create sweeping irreversible changes throughout American societybut probably not in the ways their younger selves imagined they would. Now that the Boomers are in their late-adult or retirement years their tremendous legacy can clearly be perceived. In retrospect the paths the members of this generation took to come to powerand how they came to terms with that powerare also apparent.This single-volume work supplies a broad yet detailed critical guide to the Boomer Generation containing essays on key people moments and phenomena not only during the Boomers'' 1960s heyday but also their extensive influences on American culture decades afterward. The contributors address key topics such as the rise of feminism; Civil Rights; the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement; the Beatles the Grateful Dead and rock ''n roll; gay rights; idealism narcissism and materialism; the influence of television on America and vice versa; and the transition of Boomers from being Yippies to Yuppies. This work is an ideal text for students in undergraduate or graduate courses in television studies media studies cultural studies and American studies; and is highly appropriate as a supplemental text in literature history and philosophy surveys.