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Publishing World Sees Boom In '60s Craze

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By KAREN HAYMON LONG, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2007

There's something very comforting about being a baby boomer. Maybe because there are so many of us - 80 million born from 1946 to 1964.

Or maybe because our youth is so steeped in today's culture.

Look around, college women wear the same types of tops and jeans we wore. Young men and even little boys are wearing their hair long again. Today's teens love our music - and our peace sign.

Even book publishers have gotten in on the '60s craze. Just about every week, I see new books retelling stories and showing images of that decade.

One of the most comprehensive is Tom Brokaw's "Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today," which Random House plans to release Tuesday (for $28.95).

It's not quite the story of The Greatest Generation that the broadcaster wrote in 1996. But it hits all the highlights: The civil rights movement, the Silent Majority and noisy masses, Vietnam, women's liberation ...

Then he fast-forwards to today and tells the stories of baby boomers such as Gen. Colin Powell, Sen. John McCain, Jane Pauley and others.

His book isn't sexy, but it does a fine job of recapping the exciting, turbulent and often violent years when baby boomers came of age.

Another book, "America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the '60s," by Laban Carrick Hill (Little, Brown and Co., $19.99), takes a totally different approach. It tells the stories of the era through images of pop culture.

It, too, describes the civil rights movement, as well as the Vietnam War, Black Nationalism, Chicano Power, the American Indian movement, feminism, the music scene, the environmental movement and the birth of Earth Day.

But while Brokaw does it mostly with narrative and reflection, this book spices it up with lots of photos, images, jingles, quotes and even the lyrics to the "Romper Room" TV show theme song.

The Beatles loom huge in the pantheon of baby-boomer heroes. Two new books seem like perfect complements to "The Beatles: The Biography," an excellent work published last year in paperback by Back Bay Books.

The new ones are: "Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America," by Jonathan Gould (Harmony, $27.50), and "Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Beatles ... and More!" by Stuart Shea and Robert Rodriguez (Hal Leonard, $19.95).

"Fab Four," especially, offers some tidbits even the most ardent Beatles fans may not know. Did you know John got Ringo to cut off his beard, but allowed him to keep his "sideboards"?

Another book just out should appeal to readers interested in Florida history and politics. It's "Then Sings My Soul: The Scott Kelly Story," by Dorothy Weik Smiljanich (The Florida Historical Society Press, $17.95).

I took Dorothy's place as the Tribune's travel ditor when she left the paper in 1993, and we have remained good friends.

Her book tells the story of a charismatic man - not unlike Bill Clinton - who ran twice to be Florida's governor. He didn't make it, but the story of his life makes for fascinating reading, especially told through the backdrop of Florida politics in the 1950s and '60s.

Karen Haymon Long is the Tribune's book editor.

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