Wattenberg provides sufficient evidence that society will suffer with current trends to limit our offspring. Just one issue for your consideration..what do you think will happen to social security without enough people in subsequent generations to pay for it...read his thoughts on it! Interesting read!

Wattenberg - a proud conservative Democrat and often independent centrist - believes that his party must "come home" to the responsibility era. I agree with him on this issue, but on some, he is dead wrong. He overstates the size of the "welfare state" we have - in fact, it is rather small when compared to those of other nations. He bashes Affirmative Action a little too much. He often sides with the GOP in some of the "culture wars" over immigrants and other issues.

Yet, to his credit, the author sounds the tone of the conservative Reagan Democrats rather well.

Wattenberg did a good job here in that area, despite the fact that I may disagree with him on some issues, as a die hard New Deal Democrat. Yet, regardless, this book is a great read for anyone.

Values has the dominant role in public debate in the way that government management of the economy once did. While the debate over national planning has largely been settled (less is more), the debate over national values is in many ways just beginning. It is here that Mr. Wattenberg takes a fresh an intriguing perspective. For many years, the Democrats have been popularly potrayed by their critics as the party that condones immoral behavior, whether that be Hollywood violence or single moms or open homosexuality. This doesn't appeal to most Americans but what has kept them politically vialable has been their second image as the party that's on the side of working class dads and soccer moms; the party that in the words of Al Gore "fights for them." The Republicans, it would seem, would have an opening on the values front since most Americans like their stance on such issues as crime, welfare, and affirmative action. But their popularity on these issues is tempered by a deep suspicion front most swing voters. They see the GOP as either a trojan horse for race-baiting and wrath-of-God conservatives or a money machine for selfish businessmen. In this sense, the party of Lincoln suffers a severe credibility gap. Wattenberg understands what each party is doing wrong in the values debate and offers practical solutions to getting the debate on the side of the American electorate. The 2000 election will offer a clue to which party can win the first round of the values fight.

This is simply a statistical report of the twentieth century and not terribly compelling in the choice of data. The title and concept of the book are fascinating, but the substance leaves something to be desired. I think the authors could have chosen much more compelling statistics to present and discuss. The book reads like what it probably was, a quick adaptation from a successful public television program.

This is a very fascinating collection of data about American society. It is very sound social science as far as it goes; the statistics are professionally presented and are often strikingly revealing, especially when they are counter-intuitive. But there is a most serious flaw in this book: the authors give no guidance whatever to further reading. Say you are interested in crime (Chapter 12). You will see a lot here that will surprise you. But if your curiosity has been aroused by the chapter, you will need to read at least some of the the scholarly literature before you have understood what the data mean. How would you locate this scholarly material ? The authors of this book give you no help. Shame on them !

This is a very fun book to read, especially if you have "conventional" opinions about things. I say this because some of the topics covered reveal surprisingly unexpected trends. This is not a serious work and is not suitable for serious research per se, but it has good foot-notes and sources so its topics could be researched further if the reader is so inclined.