Decade Matrix: Why the Decade You Were Born into Made You What You Are Today - Hardcover

Gollub, James O.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0201157888 ISBN 13: 9780201157888

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 1991

Synopsis

Examines how the decade of an individual's birth will influence their values, beliefs, lifestyle, spending habits, and politics

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Reviews

Gollub, director of the Stanford Research Institute Life Span Project, here posits seven distinct generations, each defined by a decade. Members of the Dream-Deferred Generation (born 1910-1919), survivors of the Depression, are "angry about the past and suspicious of the future." Marked by practical self-centeredness, the Bridge Generation (born 1930-1939) straddles the goal-oriented WW II period and the baby-boom era. Those of the Gap Generation (born 1940-1949) experienced 1960s idealism and now bring to their early middle age "a tremendous amount of authenticity and compassion." Techno-Kids (born 1960-1969), reared in conformity, are "cultural orphans" who "tend to express their alienation inwardly, against themselves, rather than against the world." While not free of psychobabble, this often intriguing report stands miles above other life-cycle schemes, largely because Gollub concretely ties each generation's imputed personality profile to historical events, socioeconomic conditions and cultural trends.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

``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. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Rather than determining how Americans behave by looking at where they live or what they do, Gollub, director of Stanford Research Institute's "Life Span" project, examines when Americans were born and how historical and current events have shaped their personalities and lives. Gollub traces each age group born since 1900 and chronicles how each decade's events created distinct personality groups. Projecting ahead to the year 2000, he also predicts how the next decade will affect each age group. Although Gollub concentrates on the middle class and generalizes considerably, his theory is fascinating and makes interesting reading for those who are curious as to why we behave as we do. Libraries will find this is a good choice in the popular psychology section. A related pop history/sociology book is William Strauss and Neil Howe's Generations, The History of America's Future, 1584-2069, LJ 2/1/91, which provides a generational matrix.--Ed.
- Marguerite Mroz, Baltimore Cty. P.L.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0201157888
• ISBN 13: 9780201157888
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 341