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The Aftermath

The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America

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The Aftermath

By: Philip Bump
Narrated by: Matthew Berry
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About this listen

A widely-followed Washington Post columnist takes a deep dive into what the end of the baby boom means for American politics and economics.

Philip Bump, a reporter as adept with a graph as with a paragraph, is popular for his ability to distill vast amounts of data into accessible stories. THE AFTERMATH is a sweeping assessment of how the baby boom created modern America, and where power, wealth, and politics will shift as the boom ends. How much longer than we'd expected will Boomers control wealth? Will millennials get shortchanged for jobs and capital as Gen Z rises? What kind of pressure will Boomers exert on the health care system? How do generations and parties overlap? When will regional identity trump age or ethnic or racial identity? Who will the future GOP voter be, and how does that affect Democratic strategies? What does the Census get right, and terribly wrong? The questions are myriad, and Bump is here to fight speculation with fact.

Writing with a light hand and deft humor, Bump helps us navigate the flood of data in which our sense of the country now drowns. He fits numbers into a narrative about who we are (including what "we" really means), how we vote, where we live, what we buy—and what predictions we can make with any confidence. We know what will happen eventually to the baby boomers. What we don't know is how the boomer legacies might reshape the country one final time. The answers in this book will help us manage the historic disruption of the American state we are now experiencing.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF of charts from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Philip Bump (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Economics Politics & Government Witty Economic Inequality

Critic Reviews

“A fascinating account of demographic change and future possibilities”The Guardian

“[A] highly detailed, data-driven, definitive story of how baby boomers changed America and a little forecasting of what might come next...Bump is a reliable, honest narrator who leans into complexity and refuses simple or singular explanations.” The Washington Post

"Whether we're talking about politics, the economy, culture or generational shifts in America, who doesn't want to know 'what's going to happen next?' Amidst so much change and disruption, it's almost impossible to see the future clearly, but Philip Bump manages to do just that. A lively, engaging, and provocative read, The Aftermath covers the contours of the Baby Boomers' many contributions and failures, while laying out the stakes for the future of equity, power, and everything that matters in American life." —CNN Political Commentator, S.E. Cupp

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