Baby boomer

Baby Boomers, or the Boom Generation, comprises that generation of Americans born after World War II. Traditionally, demographers have put the generation's birth years at 1946 to 1964; William Strauss[?] and Neil Howe[?] in their book Generations include those conceived by soldiers on leave during the war, putting the generation's birth years at 1943 to 1960.

The term is derived from a historically significant rise in the birth rate following the Second World War. Several factors have been credited with this rise, among them a general sense of relief at the war's end, and the resurgent economic conditions of the period. At the time this spike in the birthrate was named the "baby boom."

Boomers' typical grandparents were of the Lost Generation; their parents were of the G.I. Generation and Silent Generation. Their children are of Generation X and the Generation Y and their typical grandchildren will be of the generation that follows the Millenials (born circa 2004-2025).

Unlike the previous generation (the Silent), Boomers lack any childhood recollection of World War II. Unlike the next generation (Generation X), Boomers were all reaching adolescence or lingering in "post-adolescence" (a term coined for them) as the Vietnam War drew to a close. See also Generation gap.

Celebrities born during the years 1943-1960 include:

• 1943 Oliver North
• 1943 Janis Joplin (died 1970)
• 1943 Joe Namath[?]
• 1944 Angela Davis
• 1945 Steve Martin
• 1946 David Stockman[?]
• 1946 Donald Trump[?]
• 1946 Gilda Radner (died 1989)
• 1947 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• 1947 Mark Rudd[?]
• 1947 David Letterman
• 1948 Jerry Mathers[?] "The Beaver"
• 1950 Jane Pauley[?]
• 1951 Lee Atwater[?] (died 1992)
• 1954 Oprah Winfrey
• 1954 Patty Hearst
• 1955 Steve Jobs
• 1955 William H. Gates III
• 1957 Spike Lee
• 1959 John McEnroe[?]

Two U.S. Presidents were born during the years 1943-1960: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. It is estimated that the Boom Generation will hold a plurality in Congress until 2015, the White House until 2021, and will have a majority in the Supreme Court from 2010 to 2030.

Foreign-born peers of the Boomers include Lech Walesa, Mick Jagger, Daniel Ortega, Charles, Prince of Wales, and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Their cultural endowments have included the following:

• Doonesbury (comic, Garry Trudeau)
• All the President's Men (book, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein[?], later a movie)
• The Fate of the Earth[?] (Jonathan Schell[?])
• The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
• Cathy[?] (comic, Cathy Guisewite[?])
• "American Pie" (song, Don McLean)
• Saturday Night Live (television show)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (film, Steven Spielberg)
• Strawberry Statement[?] (James Kunen[?])
• Green Rage[?] (Christopher Manes[?])
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Maya Lin)
• Do the Right Thing (film, Spike Lee)

As Boomers have charted their life's voyage, they have metamorphosized from Beaver Cleaver[?] to hippie to "braneater" to yuppie to what some are calling "neo-Puritan[?]". From VJ-Day forward, whatever age bracket the Boomers have occupied has been the cultural and spiritual focal point for American society as a whole. Arriving as the inheritors of G.I. triumph, Boomers have always seen their mission not to construct society but to justify, purify, and even sanctify it. Throughout the Consciousness Revolution of the late 1960s, the Boom ethos remained a deliberate antithesis of everything G.I.: spirituality over science, gratification over patience, negativism over positivism, fractiousness over conformity, rage over friendliness, self over community.