Rating: 
Summary: Must Read List
Review: This book is a must read for anyone who is twentysomething in the 1990's. It rebels against the common misconceptions of today's younger adults. As a 13'er (born in 1974) I adored the quotes the comments and the jokes, and appreciated the points that the authors were trying to make about education and the assumptions that the older generations, ie boomers try to make about where the world is heading with the MTV generation at the helm. The definitive bible of the generation, Generation X by Douglas Copeland should hand over its title to this work by Neil Howe et al. It is far more identifiable and much more entertaining. The cartoons are very well done as well. For example as a political activist I understood the cartoon of MTV's Rock the Vote(with someone attempting to vote via pressing a button on the remote control)altogether too well!! Just read it, you be glad you did.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointment
Review: This book is full of every negative generality about those born from 1961-1984. The evidence in this book supporting the "nomad" theory is flimsy at best. It was also written way too long ago (early 90s) to possibly explain the attitudes of Generation X, which now includes more people than the boomer generation.There is also a lot of recycled material from the book Generations. A waste of time and money, this book is fit for the trash heap.
Rating:
Summary: Thirteen May Not Be An Unlucky Number
Review: When I first perused this book, I steeled myself
for another flood of invective from former Education Secretary and baby boomer pit bull William Bennett and his ilk about how everyone
and anyone born between 1961 and 1981 (the 13th generation born in the US) is an illiterate thug at worst or a attention-deficient con artist at best.
I was pleasantly surprised. Neil Howe and Bill Strauss, with a format capturing my (I confess, I'm a 13er too) peer group's main modes of expression, slick images and reproduced Internet mail messages and chat, counterpointed by an abundance of statistical and historical data, produce a fascinating and ultimately hopeful assessment of an age group that to many "just doesn't fit."
The authors think this is so because of key events in 13ers' early lives--the effect of a long parade of inept leaders, faddish educators and errant parents, a rising information overload and endless elder doomsaying. This, along with the gut-wrenching changes in the US society and economy that were and still are occurring, left them on their own emotionally and physically quite early and socially and economically so as time passed.
Howe and Strauss believe these and related experiences taught 13ers to think pragmatically, act quickly and be ever-resourceful in the face of an often absurd and always overwhelming, fast-moving world. The authors dismiss the mainstream alarmist hype and conclude these and other streetwise skills of 13ers will serve the nation well when it's their turn to "take command" in the next century.
Rating:
Summary: Thirteen May Not Be An Unlucky Number
Review: When I first perused this book, I steeled myselffor another flood of invective from former Education Secretary and baby boomer pit bull William Bennett and his ilk about how everyoneand anyone born between 1961 and 1981 (the 13th generation born in the US) is an illiterate thug at worst or a attention-deficient con artist at best. I was pleasantly surprised. Neil Howe and Bill Strauss, with a format capturing my (I confess, I'm a 13er too) peer group's main modes of expression, slick images and reproduced Internet mail messages and chat, counterpointed by an abundance of statistical and historical data, produce a fascinating and ultimately hopeful assessment of an age group that to many "just doesn't fit." The authors think this is so because of key events in 13ers' early lives--the effect of a long parade of inept leaders, faddish educators and errant parents, a rising information overload and endless elder doomsaying. This, along with the gut-wrenching changes in the US society and economy that were and still are occurring, left them on their own emotionally and physically quite early and socially and economically so as time passed. Howe and Strauss believe these and related experiences taught 13ers to think pragmatically, act quickly and be ever-resourceful in the face of an often absurd and always overwhelming, fast-moving world. The authors dismiss the mainstream alarmist hype and conclude these and other streetwise skills of 13ers will serve the nation well when it's their turn to "take command" in the next century.
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