From an award-winning journalist, a reflective, smart, and deeply reported look at the millennial generation that draws on the experiences of five diverse individuals and explores where we go from here
What happened to millennials? At the birth of America’s largest living generation, the outlook was strong: unparalleled economic growth, the emerging Internet, the rise of the cell phone, and a geopolitics that had allegedly reached “the end of history” all set expectations exceedingly high for a cohort entering adulthood at the dawn of the new millennium. That adulthood—a work in progress for more than a quarter century—has been disrupted by war, recession, pandemic, and a sharp turn toward cultural and economic polarization. It has also been endlessly critiqued by others as immature, lazy, weak, incomplete, selfish, and supposedly riddled with failure.
Now, 25 years after the first millennials began turning 18, Bloomberg News reporter Charlie Wells comes to the generation’s defense with a cultural history of an adulthood disrupted. Drawing on hundreds of hours of intimate interviews with five millennials from across the country, he explores how the biggest events, ideas, and transformations of the century played out in private lives. Between the data points and statistical studies, news reports and archival records, his brutally honest, on-the-record conversations about love, loss, work, addiction, tragedy, and sacrifice reveal how a generation once minimized can no longer be ignored.
What Happened to Millennials charts a path from our nostalgic past to a better future, shaped by the challenges we have surmounted, the people we have loved, and the adults we have become.
Praise
“What Happened to Millennials is engrossing, thought-provoking, and rich with insight. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the forces that have shaped—and continue to shape—one of the most influential generations of our time. Through masterful storytelling, Charlie Wells weaves a narrative tale of a generation caught between the seemingly boundless optimism that characterized their childhood and the far more uncertain reality of America’s present and future.”
—ABBY PHILLIP, HOST OF CNN’S NewsNight with Abby Phillip
“Drawing on interviews and sociological research, What Happened to Millennials is the first book to make sense of why the generation raised on Tamagotchis and LiveJournal is now facing a collective midlife crisis. Charlie Wells proves a genial and insightful guide in this sweeping yet intimate history.”
—ZEKE FAUX, AUTHOR OF NUMBER GO UP
“You’ve heard Millennials ruined everything. Think again. In What Happened to Millennials, Charlie Wells offers a well-written, deeply felt exoneration of a generation that endured a terrible economy, predatory technology, and a blundering government to refashion the American dream from the scraps they had left. A combination of hard facts, great research, and personal stories proves why they—and their avocado toast—should be championed. Just like a Tamagotchi, this book will keep calling to you, over and over, feeding you more excellent insights every time you open it.”
—BRIAN MOYLAN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE HOUSEWIVES
