Authors@Google: Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw chats with Stuart Feldman at Google's New York office about his new book, "The Time of Our Lives: Past, Present, Promise"

Tom Brokaw's mother grew up on a farm in South Dakota during the Great Depression. Now ninety-three years old, she remembers horse-and-buggy trips into town to buy blocks of ice. Like many of their generation, by the 1950s, the Brokaws had an easier life. They valued family, hard work, faith, thrift, moderation, and community. The generation of Tom's grandchildren, born into the great prosperity of the late twentieth century, have almost the opposite kind of life and expectations. Now, the idea that each generation will enjoy more than the last has been discredited. So where do we go from here? In this wonderful book, Tom Brokaw writes about where we have been, where we are now, where we ought to go, and how we can get there, through stories of four generations in his family and other families. How we can make the most of our time here, in our families, in America, and on this planet—that is to say, the time of our lives.