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Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation
Neil Howe and William Strauss Vintage Books New York, NY 2000 368 pp. ISBN 0375707190 $14.00
Keywords Stereotyping, Marketing, Young people, USA
Millennials Rising examines the past, present and alternative futures of the Millennial generation - those born in or after 1982. Howe and Strauss tell the story absorbingly, combining facts, stories, cartoons and sidebar quotes. The authors provide many new ideas and statistics about the Millennials and challenge the negative stereotypes often applied to young people. A history of US generations is interwoven both to provide context and as a tool to predict the future. Because of its thoroughness and practical wisdom, the book will be ideal in helping managers make better decisions. Plentiful documentation is provided, including sections on "Author surveys", "Sidebar voices", "Text references" and "Data sources".
The book is organized into three parts: "Where they come from", "Who they are", and "Where they're going". Part One consists of three chapters: "The next great generation", "From babies on board to power 'teens", and "The coming Millennial revolution".
The main focus of Chapter 1 is debunking several negative stereotypes commonly held about Millennials. Chapter 1 also points out how Millennials are unlike any other youth generation in living memory, why they prefer the nickname Millennials, and what kind of generation Millennials are likely to become.
Chapter 2 traces recent history through several changes - the era of the wanted child, the era of the protected child, and the era of the worthy child. Another important component is an explanation of why the definition of a generation is more than just birth numbers. The last part of Chapter 2 details how generations shape history.
Chapter 3 answers the question, "Why do so few people, even experts, know how to anticipate generational change?" (p. 60). The meat of the chapter explains how Americans are taken by surprise when a new generation arrives and how all generations rebel. The authors also answer the question, "Is there any pattern or dynamic that determines how each generation will be new?" (p. 61).
Part Two of this book contains ten chapters: "The baby boomlet" (demography); "Kinderpolitics" (political economy); "Ground Zero of the culture wars" (family); "Raising standards for regular kids" (school); "Jiggy with...