Tom Brokaw - one of America's favorite TV journalists. He is the epitome of the 20th century American. He grew up in South Dakota. He was born to parents who survived the Great Depression, grew up in the Midwest, married a Ms. South Dakota, and has a career that any journalist would love to have. He has reported on some of the most important events of the second-half of the 20th century. He was NBC's White House correspondent during the Watergate Scandal, covered the fall of the Berlin Wall for NBC Nightly News, and was the first person to interview Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin on American TV.
"Who we are, where we've been, and where we need to go not to recapture the American Dream" is how the book description begins. It is the perfect summary for this book. Brokaw writes about how Americans lived in the 1930s, '40s, '50s, 60s - from the sort of education they had, how they received their news, the type of homes they lived in, and how they kept themselves entertained. Then he goes on to compare how the Americans of today are dealing with these same issues and how these issues may be dealt with in the future.
The Past:
I really enjoyed reading about how Americans lived 20, 30, 40 years ago. Most readers of this book will probably find it boring because they've heard similar stories from their grandparents and parents. I've heard stories of my grandparents and parents growing up in the Soviet Union. There is a big difference. They do not have stories of how they bought their first car or house in Communist Suburbia, USSR. Such a thing did not exist. Instead, I heard stories of waiting for bread outside a store at 5 AM on a frigid winter or my mother going to "pioneer camp" and singing patriotic communist songs.
Example of an issue: America was the shit in the mid-20th century. Nobody was on the same level as 'Merica. Economically, everyone was light years away. Europe was recovering from a World War. Japan was dealing with the aftershock of being nuked. The rest of Asia was making a decision about Communism. Africa was trying to get rid of colonialism or what remained of it. South America was about to deal with communism as well. Australia was surfing and Antartica was chilling with the penguins. America was prosperous - the suburbs were rising up where Americans can own a car, a house, a dog, and have 2.5 kids. The husband would commute into the city to his perfect job and his wife would stay at home being the perfect housewife. Obviously there were problems - "Mad Men" can tell you all about them.
 |
| Aerial view Levittown, NY - the birthplace of suburbia. Oy. |
 |
| Suburban Family in their new home in Levittown, New York. (Bernard Hoffman, Life Magazine, Time Warner, Inc. Peck and Deyle, p. 650.) |
America today does not seem to be doing as well as it were before. Our education system used to be the best in the world. Now 40 million Americans are illiterate, with many high school graduates reading on an 8th grade level. That is only the start of our problems.
Example of an issue: Americans do not know how to deal with their credits. Many of us have bought the largest mansions and luxury cars on credit, and are now deepshit in debt (In 2010, total household debt equaled 121.7% of after-tax income). Our capitalist and materialistic upbringing that we have to have the best and not worry about paying for it right now, but in the future. That has come back to bite us in the ass, especially in the 2008 Great Recession. Today, national unemployment is 7.7%, at its peak in 10/2010 it was 10%. In 2011, home foreclosures were up to 3.9 million! If the average family size is 4, that means 15.6 million people lost their homes (America has a population of almost 314 million).
 |
| Heatmap of foreclosed homes in America in 2009. The darker the color, the more foreclosures (From RealtyTrac). |
The Promise:
Now I don't know about you but almost every single Communications class I've taken, my professors have been pessimistic about the future. We are too attached to our technology and won't have any human interaction in the future. Tom Brokaw - I would have loved to have him as a professor because of his glass-is-half-full worldview. In each of his chapters, his "The Promise" chapter is uplifting.
Example of an issue: Now that we have gone through the Great Recession, Americans are thinking twice about their ways of living. Many have learned what they wanted before, they can live without it AND be completely satisfied with it. Families have started to buy smaller homes because they realize they don't need that much space. Also, they save a ton on their bills because decreased electricity and heating usage. Many are learning what those who went through the Great Depression knew - if something breaks, don't throw it out but FIX IT. We are slowly learning that it is the time you spend with other people that matters and not owning the latest boring iPhone.
Overall, I love this book. It is definitely a good read for anybody who is looking to read nonfiction with a happy past, present, and future.
