"Boom: Voices of the Sixties" may help Baby Boomers figure out what has happened in the past four decades since they went from young protesters to middle-aged citizens.

If you want to know what has happened in the United States from 1968 to 2008, you can pick up newscaster Tom Brokaw’s new book, “Boom: Voices of the Sixties.”

In it, Brokaw takes stock of what transpired in the volatile 1960s and what changes and reverberations they created over the past 40 years.

Brokaw does this not by presenting his own theories on America’s journey but by letting the dozens of well-known people he interviewed speak.

It is a balanced look at our society, utilizing men and women of all colors from liberal to conservative.

Centers On Conflicts

The book centers on the major conflicts of the 1960s – the Vietnam War; the military draft; the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy; the civil rights movement; the women’s movement; and the election of 1968.

The topics are varied and so are the views presented.

Brokaw talks with Democratic Georgia congressman John Lewis, who marched with King in Selma and worked for Bobby Kennedy. Lewis reflects on the past four decades with some disappointment.

“There have been unbelievable changes for the better in politics and in the economy,” Lewis says. “But back in the Sixties, people had a sense of hope. I think we’ve lost that.”

Lewis is not the only interviewee to express disillusionment.

Gloria Steinem, one of the best known activists for women’s rights, told Brokaw, “I imagined that if we could get a majority of Americans to support the issues of equality, it would happen. I didn’t anticipate that after decades, it would still be unrealized.”

Variety of Opinions

Others are more optimistic, focusing on the positive changes that came out of the 1960s.

Dolores Huerta, one of the founders of the United Farmworkers union, says “Now we have an environmental movement. We have a full-blown women’s movement all across the country.”

Most are reflective as they look back.

Tom Coakley, a Baby Boomer who lost a leg in Vietnam and then protested against the war, says his anti-war views have mellowed over the years, but he is still concerned about the war in Iraq and the lack of outrage over it. “There isn’t as much activism or the same passion for the things we took on,” he says.

Dr. Shelby Steele, who grew up in the midst of the Civil Rights movement in Los Angeles’ south central neighborhood, seems surprised by how little things changed. “I thought in 1968 there was going to be a revolution… America was going to be overthrown. It really looked that way,” he says.

Then and Now

Others are able to make a connection between what happened then and what is happening now.

Pat Buchanan, the conservative political pundit, was a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon 40 years ago. He says the Democratic Party is still suffering from the split it suffered during the 1968 election.

Anti-war protester Sam Brown agrees. He says his generation should have supported Democrat Hubert Humphrey over Nixon that year instead of protesting against him.

“Boom” also quotes Gen. Colin Powell, singer James Taylor, political operative Karl Rove and astronaut Jim Lovell, among others.

Janet Maslin, a book reviewer for the New York Times, says Brokaw has “orchestrated a baby boom epiphany” with his “warmth, curiosity and conviction.” She says “Boom” prompts readers to “step back and do some soul searching.”