The Time of Our Lives: A conversation about AmericaWho we are, where we’ve been, and where we need to go now, to recapture the American dream Now with a new Foreword by the author “The best presentation of the challenges facing the country—and the possible solutions—I've ever seen.”—P. J. O’Rourke Tom Brokaw, known and beloved for his landmark work in American journalism and for the New York Times bestsellers The Greatest Generation and Boom!, now turns his attention to the challenges that face America in the new millennium, to offer reflections on how we can restore America’s greatness. Rooted in the values, lessons, and verities of generations past and of his South Dakota upbringing, Brokaw weaves together inspiring stories of Americans who are making a difference and personal stories from his own family history, to engage us in a conversation about our country and to share ideas for how we can revitalize the promise of the American Dream. Inviting us to foster a rebirth of family, community, and civic engagement as profound as the one that helped win World War II, built our postwar prosperity, and ushered in the Civil Rights era, Brokaw traces the exciting, unnerving changes in modern life—in values, education, public service, housing, the Internet, and more—that have transformed our society in the decades since the age of thrift in which he was raised. In offering ideas from Americans who are change agents in their communities, Brokaw gives us a nourishing vision of hopefulness in an age of diminished expectations. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Inspiring tales of how people from different walks of life have found ways to be of service to their communities and country.”—Walter Isaacson |
Contents
CHAPTER I | 3 |
One Nation Indivisible | 17 |
K Through Twelve and the Hazards | 28 |
Old School Ties and New World | 57 |
Dont Know Much About Geometry | 66 |
Church of Thrift | 86 |
Survivors | 99 |
House Broken | 106 |
Everyones a Journalist | 187 |
Partners | 198 |
PART FOUR What Now Grandma and Grandpa? | 209 |
Balancing the Book of Life | 211 |
Failure Is an Option | 228 |
The Grandparent Lode | 238 |
September of My Years | 252 |
Acknowledgments | 275 |
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