What Did The Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us?

What Did The Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us? by Francis Beckett

First published in 2010, this book explores the legacy of the baby boomers: the generation who, born in the aftermath of the Second World War, came of age in the radical sixties where for the first time since the War, there was freedom, money, and safe sex.

In this book, Francis Beckett argues that what began as the most radical-sounding generation for half a century turned into a random collection of youthful style gurus, sharp-toothed entrepreneurs and management consultants who believed revolution meant new ways of selling things; and Thatcherites, who thought freedom meant free markets, not free people. At last, it found its most complete expression in New Labour.

The author argues that the children of the 1960s betrayed the generations that came before and after, and that the true legacy of the swinging decade is in ashes.

Francis Beckett is a contemporary historian, author, journalist, dramatist, and playwright. His eighteen works include biographies of four Prime Ministers, the first of which is about Clement Attlee, his own political hero. He's written for a number of national publications, but he's best known for his work for the Guardian, where he was a regular feature writer and reviewer for many years. His plays have been broadcast on the radio and performed at the London Fringe Festival. He is the current editor of Third Age Matters, the national journal published by the University of the Third Age. He is a former president of the National Union of Journalists and a Labour Party and trade union press officer and editor.