``America is a culture whose identity is best found in time,'' asserts Gollub, a gerontologist, and that is precisely where he searches for it here, examining seven ``generations'' from the ``Children of the Century,'' born between 1900 and 1909, to the ``Techno-Kids'' born in the 1960's. Gollub's reason for using decades to divide age groups is not clear but appears to be based partly on convenience. It's certainly tidy, but societies don't necessarily shift gears with such regularity. His approach, dubbed the Life Span Framework, considers so-called Time Signatures, the key historical events that have affected each decade's cohorts; their Birthmarks, or representative personality types; Rites of Passage, significant stages in their personal development; and their Weather Report, that is, the economic, cultural, social, political, and technological conditions that shape their values. Gollub tracks the life story of each generation in a sort of vest-pocket cultural history of 20th-century America, and he includes profiles of representative personality types for each group. Finally, he takes a stab at forecasting what the future holds for each group and its specific personality types. His writing smacks of the lingo of market research reports. Catchy names abound; e.g., the four personality types of the Techno-Kids are labeled the 'Billy Budds,' the 'Cosmopolitans,' the 'Missing Ingredients,' and the 'Keepers of the Flame.' Entertaining but repetitious: market research demographics and pop history, dressed up with some basic sociology and psychology.
Pub Date: May 23, 1991
ISBN: 0-201-15788-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1991
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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