Rating: 
Summary: Manipulating the facts
Review: This book seems so bent on proving the Millennials to be the generation "that will save us all" it manipulates facts, ignores contrary information, and wastes a good deal of energy pointing out how negative and horrible previous generations were. For example, it notes that teen drug use is down, but only if you compare it with the 70s and early 80s. It ignores the fact that it has been on a slow rise since 1990 (which were the teens of generation X), that ecstasy use has doubled in the last two years (Monitoring the Future), etc. Similarly it notes that teen drug use is down. True, but it might have a bit to do with the fact that fear of STDs has moved to the number one slot for why teens abstain from sex and 1 in 4 sexually active teens have had a STD (Newsweek/'99) than them embracing traditional values.Additionally, has it occurred to the authors that today's teens aren't behaving better in spite of their Boomer and Gen X parents, but BECAUSE of? There are many positive and interesting things about this generation, but this book suggests that teenagers have created this world on their own, and not due to a better adult support system. By doing so, they have robbed this book of much of its credibility.
Rating:
Summary: A distorted picture of 00's youth
Review: I found this book to be a very manipulative, contrived attempt at creating a distorted picture of 00's youth. The coverage is one-sided, with lots more attention paid to incidents and anecdotes that fit their bill of youth than those that don't. William Strauss and Neil Howe basically look for and write about only what they want to find. The argument that a millennial generation that makes a sharp change from generation X starts right at 1982 because the culture supposedly did a 180 on its views on children, which still afects them today and serves as THE generational cutoff line, is at least as questionable as the "Hero" character this book heralds as the norm for all of today's youth. This book mentions the rising of some trends, such has higher standardized test scores and academic curricula, or the decline in crime; while these may be true, they do not prove anything about the generation of youth being more civic-minded or all around better, especially when the problem with crime and poverty is improving across all age groups. They also make no consideration of other factors such as the economy that are responsible for the improved state of living today. The authors overexaggerate the importance of the to-do about the highschool class of 2000 in forming a boundary or shaping these kids' identities, to make it seem as if there has been much more hype about the Class of '00 than there actually has. This book is poor as an attempt to explain this generation and should not be taken seriously.
Rating:
Summary: Way off
Review: I don't know where the author got these ideas. I don't see any of what the book says is happening with kids in the real world. I can think of few teenagers who like authority and rules, as this book would have them. One quote in the book says you never see kids at high schools wearing black clothes anymore. Yet I still see many of the kids wearing black or even all black. Most kids just wear basic black and blue, with some white clothing and khaki too. And I still know plenty of kids with peircings and tattoos. One chapter writes about how the teen music today is clean, upbeat music like the boy bands and Brittney Spears, distinguishing today's youth from that of 10 years ago, who listened to grunge, rap or Madonna. These pop groups today are aimed at a younger audience; most high school kids I know just listen to Greenday or the Offspring, or to the rap and hip/hop groups. A lot of them also like the female artists like Tori and Sarah, and I know some kids who even like grunge! They promises a newly political group of teens who are all upbeat and are going to change the world. Sorry, but I'm just not noticing anything like what they say. The kids here still surprise me with how apathetic they are about political matters. I basically don't know anyone who's like the teens described in that book. It has a lot of quotes from people who talk about Millennials as being like that, but I could find just as many quotes from people who see teens as being unengaged, angst-ridden, loose and antiestablishment. "Millennials Rising" says it is supposed to open your yes to a great discovery about what is really happening with kids. I read the book, and I *still* don't believe any of it. Sorry, but I don't recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A reflection of everything I've seen
Review: _Millennials Rising_ is about as accurate as you can get in describing the change I've seen in kids over the last several years. For years, I hesitated to go to public places because all the kids ran so wild as to make the experience unpleasant. That's no longer the case. Kids and teens are more polite, better disciplined, more responsible, more cooperative, very team oriented, and a genuine pleasure to be around. It's about time someone recognized and applauded these changes. Anyone who has ever given up on kids as hopeless heathens, needs to take a look at _Millennials Rising_ and a second look at today's kids.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely incredible
Review: This book shocked me. It was so right on it was scary. The differences between the Millennials and Generation X are really stark, and this book shows them as they are. Today's teens are a special generation and we'd do well to keep an eye on them and aid them as they grow up. They're the future of the country and the authors do a good job of reminding us of that, and showing how important to us all our responsibilities to this geneation are. A good book that every parent and every adult should read, and then reread.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, even-handed look at the next American generati
Review: Millennials Rising, in short, is an excellent start of the examination of the next American generation, the Millennials, born 1982 to the present. Neil Howe and William Strauss are the two preeminent generational historians writing today. In their groundbreaking work Generations, they meticulously researched American generations all the way back to the 16th century. They followed this up with an examination of Generation X in 13th Gen that helped explain the why and how of an entire generation that had previously been all but ignored. Then in Fourth Turning the authors advanced their generational theory to convincingly outline a model that explains the cyclical nature of generations. Now, with Millennials Rising they are embarking on something that hasn't been done before, namely charting the course of an entire generation as it grows up. They have done an excellent job of defining the generation as a whole, rather than examining individuals within it. They identify the major trends, the dominant themes, that make Millennials what they are as a group (and they are nothing, if not a group). Then they give concrete examples that back up the theory. Rather than shoehorn teens into a preconceived stereotype, the way many marketers do today, Howe and Strauss show how these preconceptions don't fit and build a new model for the next generation. Where Boomers were the generation of feeling and interpersonal reflection, Millennials are more focused on the rational and the outer world. Where Xers became individualized, thanks to (un)parenting that made them define themselves with little formal structure, Millennials entire lives are structured by an entire nation of parents with an emphasis on team work and group action. The authors have highlighted these differences in past books, and do so again here. And they go one step further, expanding the model to show the unique place in history that the Millennials hold and how that shapes them as a group, and forms them also as individual members of that group. Having a fair amount of interaction with high school age kids the past few years, I have noticed myself that today's teens are vastly different from those of my own high school in the mid 1980s (admittedly my examination is less precise and my sample a whole lot smaller). And while not everything that that authors write about is exactly right on, I can see clearly that their overall approach is on target . Again, it's the big picture that is important and no one else writing on generational issues today paints that picture as clearly as Howe and Strauss. Who should read this book? Millennials Rising is a must read for any serious historian, and anyone interested in generational issues. The book will be a boon to those who are looking towards the future, such as policy makers both in the public and private sectors. Anyone who is interested in trends in politics, pop culture, or society as a whole would be well served to read Millennials Rising. Even if you don't agree with all of it, you will find it interesting and thought provoking. The book is well written, not overly pedantic or boringly academic. Rather it reads quickly, with lots of visual aids such as charts, info graphs and some great cartoons. Like 13th Gen, Millennials Rising has numerous quotes along the sides of each page that both reflect the theory and raise important questions for the reader to keep in mind. I can't recommend Millenials Rising strongly enough. Read it for yourself and you will see why generational theory is becoming one of the hottest areas of social science. You won't be disappointed. (My name is Rob Crowther, ***********************)
Rating:
Summary: A soapbox for a conservative agenda
Review: Millennials Rising is about the generation of kids born 1982 and after, which the authors dub the "Millennial" generation, introducing them as a generation of civic, teamworking youth who will return conformity to the world. The writing is biased and the claims about this generation unconvincing. Strauss & Howe go through chapter 1 writing in Q&A format: "Are they distrustful? No, they accept authority". They report that "half say they trust government to do what's right", this from a New York Times/CBS poll. According to this same poll of teenagers, 52% said homosexuality was wrong and 97% of respondents got along with their parents. The unrepresentative poll also reported that vast majorities never drank, smoked or used drugs, and only 38% of 16-and 17-year-olds had sex -- both of these way below the all the national figures. They continue to ask-and-answer, "Are they rule-breakers? No, they're rule followers", mentioning lowering rates of teen crime, abortion and pregnancy. These figures only mean that kids are deciding some risks are not for them, not that they follow authority and rules. If today's youth firmly obeyed rules, drug use should also be falling. The authors also fail to take into account the rising economy later in the 1990s. This book insists the reason the mainstream view of teens entails rebellious, edgy youth with baggy clothing -- "Generation X squared" -- is because Americans assume that every generation will be like the one before it. No, we have that image of teens because that's what we actually SEE! Wherever I go, kids look like "Gen-X" or "Gen-Y" in their black clothes, body piercing and disrespect of adults. The authors insult the intelligence of the reader with this and several other presumptions. They write that in 1997 "CD sales plunged for the most heavily hyped alternative and grunge-rock groups. Viewers tired of heroin-chic fashion ads." Where did they get their sources for these? If viewers were tiring of heroin-chic ads, why are they still flooding the TV? This book praises zero tolerance, both celebrating the war on adolescents and crackdown on teen sex, drug use and expression and painting this generation as submissive, "good-scout" youth who like restrictions imposed on them. It unabashedly speaks in favor of unwarranted searches, censorship at school, restricting the Net, curfews, drinking age and other attacks on the civil liberties of young people. It also falls to the odious propaganda of referring to these controls as "protection", as on page 117, where they write that these teenagers love rules, wanting "discipline" and "order". The authors write "Millennials support convention -- the idea that social rules can help", while attacking individualism as the root of societal problems throughout the book. They claim kids today have nothing to rebel against, then they go and acknowledge the barrage of oppressive rules imposed on youth by the same society they say has become too permissive! They do not acknowledge that teenagers are rebelling against strict laws and parents, a corporation-owned world, rigid social rules and repression of emotion, a puritanical backlash against sex, and drugs being illegal. I know several teenagers personally, and they are not afraid to defy authority and very unlike the teens this book talks about. Here in San Diego there are many teenagers protesting against curfews. When lurking in teen chatrooms I've found this generation to have a somewhat anarchist mindset, some mentioning that most students at their high school want drugs legalized. The authors exalt the trend of uniforms in public schools, but conveniently avoid mentioning the many schools where student rebellions have quashed uniforms. They emphasize vital statistics like decreasing juvenile crime and suicide, but use this as evidence that a more wholesome generation is filling the youth bracket, even though these trends are not concomitant with the 1982 birthyear they assert begins the generation. In chapter 14 they advance to make some doubtful predictions for future. They predict "a new emphasis on manners, modesty, and old-fashioned gender courtesies" and contort the definition of rebellion by arguing that this generation "will rebel against the culture by cleaning it up, rebel against political cynicism by touting trust..." With all the things that adolescents actually DO rebel against, smuttiness is hardly the most pressing matter! And trust in government is the last thing we're going to need with corrupt and dishonest politicians, a drug war, money-owned politics and a system that can't get anything changed. The authors also conducted some youth surveys of their own, but a class from Pat Buchanan's town will hardly be the most libertarian sample. A huge portion of the quotes are from McLean, the authors having pumped kids for quotes about their generation or academic pressure. The book is filled with quotes about what a bright, conventional, patriotic generation this is, but has ZERO quotes from people who have observed the opposite. Although one chapter briefly mentions other types of kids, the general volume is biased drivel that selectively picks from data and quotes while entirely excluding all the evidence that observes a different picture of youth. The authors quote Douglas Coupland as saying "The kids have got their own thing going. Good." Coupland said this in response to a statement from someone else pitching a similar line about kids, but their use of this quote implies that Coupland himself observed a change from Generation X. They dishonestly take this and many other quotes (and probably many more) out of context, to sound as if observational evidence for their generational description is abundant. Millennials Rising, in short, paints today's teenage generation as tightly structured, uncreative, square, compliant devotees of "civic duty". It's filled with value judgments, constantly trashing modern counterculture as "vulgar" and "nasty", and they insultingly assume that their readers will share their views. The book demonizes individualism and uncompromisingly sees this generation as one that will bring back an era of conformity and repression. This one-sided, reactionary, tunnel-sighted book is a waste of time for anyone trying to understand the teenage generation.
Rating:
Summary: Useless as a guide to teenagers
Review: This book purports to explain today's generation of teenagers, but totally misses the mark. It talks about a generation of teens who exhibit characteristics such as teamwork, trust in authority, political involvement, cheerfulness and conventionality. The authors' description applies only to a small segment of the teen population. The authors do cite a few surveys and statistics from a small number of sources for many of the statements they make about the "Millennial generation", but they quote only a few and leave out any information about other types of teenagers. The book talks all about these kids, born 1982 and after, being civically oriented youth who obey all rules and trust their government. My daughter tells me that in her school those kids are ostracized as nerds! I found little here to help explain the youth generation, especially the older kids who don't listen to N' Sync and Christina Aguilera and don't wear bright, preppy clothes. This is not a useful book for those teaching or working with teenagers.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating read
Review: An excellent book that bears out what I've discovered when I actually interact with this millenial generation -- that most of them are really pretty nice kids. One of the better sections looks back before the GI Generation to the 19th century and the trends that governed those generations, and relates them to the 20th. The authors include quotes from sources as diverse as "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" to the Wall Street Journal, and a wonderful detailed bibliography. Well worth buying for those who have an interest in today's society. It should spark a great deal of discussion.
Rating:
Summary: A great insight onto my generation
Review: This book is a great look into the latest generation. I am 15 and this book really did a great job at helping me know what my generation is about and telling me what expectations my generation has. I recommend this book for any aldult and any kid who wants to learn about their generation. The authors write it very well and when you finish you will feel like an expert on your generation.
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