Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus
by By Loeb, Paul Rogat
Category: History , Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)

Challenging  prevailing media stereotypes, Generation at the Crossroads explores the  beliefs and choices of the students who came of age in the 1980s and  1990s. For seven years, at over a hundred campuses in thirty states,  Paul Loeb asked students about the values they held. He examines their  concepts of responsibility, the links they draw between present and  future, and how they view themselves in relation to the larger human  community in which they live.  He brings us a range of voices, from "I'm  not that kind of person," to "I had to take a stand."  Loeb looks at  how the rest of us can serve young people as better role models, and  give them courage and vision to help build a better world.This  insightful book explores the culture of withdrawal that dominated  American campuses through most of the eighties. He locates its roots in  historical ignorance, relentless individualism, mistrust of social  movements, and a general isolation from urgent realities. He examines  why a steadily increasing minority has begun to take on critical public  issues, whether environmental activism, apartheid, hunger and  homelessness, affordable education, or racial and sexual equity. Loeb  looks at individuals who have overcome precisely the barriers he has  described, and how their journeys can become models. The generational  choices he explores will shape our common future.