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“Earnest, caring, and funny, McKibben dovetails personal reckonings with an astute elucidation of our social justice and environmental crises.”
— Booklist (starred review)
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“A reasonable if perhaps quixotic plea for the boomers to rise from the couch and get back to work fixing their messes.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“With overconsumption fueling climate change, a new understanding of how racism has shaped US history, and religion a divisive rather than unifying force, he ponders what went wrong.”
— Library Journal
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“Narrator Eric Jason Martin adds gusto to this mini-memoir…Martin deftly delivers McKibben’s biting humor and sarcasm, along with his moving quotes from studies on racism, including the unholy relationship between American Christianity and its legacy of racism…Most effective is McKibben’s confrontation of Baby Boomers and others.”
— AudioFile
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“McKibben wrestles with a generation that lost its way and why and how to find the way back.”
— Jill Lepore, New York Times bestselling author
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“A smart and savvy historical reflection on what has brought us to this crucible moment of climate collapse.”
— Terry Tempest Williams, author of Erosion: Essays of Undoing
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“If we survive the interlocking plagues of climate change, right-wing authoritarianism, and savage inequality, future generations will utter the name of the New England moral visionary and activist McKibben with the reverence we speak of Emerson, Thoreau, and Garrison. This sparkling little diamond of a book illuminates the all-American boyhood and education of a radical Christian environmentalist in love with a broken world that, frankly speaking, may or may not exist at all a century from now. May McKibben's golden pen continue to flow swiftly and conquer—with both love and reason—the dangerous enemies of human civilization.“—Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-8)
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What went wrong with America in the 1970s? In this searching book, Bill McKibben wrestles with a generation that lost its way, and why, and how to find the way back.
— Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States
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Bill McKibben has written a great American memoir, using the prism of his own life to reflect on the most important dynamics in our society. Bill McKibben’s writing is poignant, engrossing and revealing. His message is a clarion call for a generation to understand what happened to their American Dream, and to fight for our common future.
— Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: How Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
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Bill McKibben is such a heroic and consequential leader in the fight for the climate on behalf of all humankind, it's easy to lose sight of his humanity. As usual, this book is a thoughtful critique of wrong turns America has taken, but this time refreshingly and revealingly intertwined with his personal story. As a fellow former suburban boy who has also tried hard to figure out ‘what the hell happened,’ The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon was like listening to a wise old pal preach.
— Kurt Andersen, author of Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America
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The prolific writer and activist finds some of the causes of our societal meltdown in the idyllic suburbs of his youth. . . . McKibben capably picks apart long-ago history to find present themes.
— Kirkus Reviews
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Adept at factual storytelling and connecting the dots, earnest, caring, and funny, McKibben dovetails personal reckonings with an astute elucidation of our social justice and environmental crises, arguing wisely that facing the truth about our past is the only way forward to a more just and sustainable future.
— Booklist, starred review