From Boomers to MillennialsFrom Boomers to Millennials 31
CONTENTS
■To Millennials, the good life was commonly depicted in material terms: a big
house with an expensive automobile, much as shown in this 2006 photograph.
But the Age of Bling may have ended two years later, when the economy
tanked and college graduates confronted a more austere future.821life.” (The figures do not add up to 100 percent
because respondents could give opinions for more
than one statement.) Millennials are far more likely to
seek wealth, while Boomers were more likely to seek
“a meaningful philosophy of life.”
One explanation is that Boomers came of age dur-ing a period of unprecedented economic growth. They
were free to ponder the meaning of life because they
rarely worried about finding a decent job. They could
imagine brave new worlds of gender revolution and
institutional transformation, of liberal treatment of
criminals and immigrants, of a broader reform of soci-
ety as a whole.
But the protracted recession after 1973 changed the
way people looked at things. An infusion of new peoples,
a liberalization of attitudes, and a transformation of insti-
tutions all suggested that society was becoming unhinged.
A period of retrenchment was in order. Marriage and the
family were to be preserved in familiar forms; tougher
laws must be passed and criminals punished.
Through it all, the sphere of public life contracted;
private concerns—such as making money—took prece-
dence over grand social schemes. And public spaces
receded as people retreated to their cars and homes,
where they could interact with Facebook friends and vir-
tual realities.■■The New Immigration
■The Emergence of Modern
Feminism
■Roe v. Wade
■Conservative Counterattack
■The Rise of Gay and
Lesbian Rights
■AIDS
■Publicly Gay■Crime and Punishment
■Crack and Urban Gangs
■Violence and Popular Culture
■From Main Street to Mall to
Internet
■From Community to
Facebook
■Greying of the Boomers
■American Lives:
Barack ObamaHeartheAudio Chapter 31 at http://www.myhistorylab.com