Passing Phase

Richard Brookhiser

HISTORY may have escaped its detour, but can the people who were born during it? And if they can’t, how clean an escape will history have? Americans born in the mid-century baby boom—including Bill Clinton (b. 1946), and me (b. 1955)—bear certain stigmata on their minds, their emotions, and their expectations. These wounds were not inflicted by Hitler or Stalin, nor (for the most part) by FDR, so they cannot be healed only by the fall of Communism, or the 1994 elections.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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Richard Brookhiser

HISTORY may have escaped its detour, but can the people who were born during it? And if they can’t, how clean an escape will history have? Americans born in the mid-century baby boom—including Bill Clinton (b. 1946), and me (b. 1955)—bear certain stigmata on their minds, their emotions, and their expectations. These wounds were not inflicted by Hitler or Stalin, nor (for the most part) by FDR, so they cannot be healed only by the fall of Communism, or the 1994 elections.