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Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments The ideas, thoughts, and words of this book are most definitely those of the authors. But any work of this scope is, ultimately, a team effort, and for this reason we want to acknowledge a number of individuals without whom this book could not have been written. We, and anyone who wants to have a clearer understanding of American history and society, owe a large intellectual debt to William Strauss and Neil Howe. Nearly two decades ago we read their wellresearched , perceptive, and seminal book Generations. It was a “Eureka” moment for us both. That initial reading provided an amazingly clear understanding of the ebb and flow of America’s past and its future. At that time, both of us vowed to apply the Strauss and Howe generational framework to the aspect of American life about which we are most passionate—politics.We renewed that commitment following their publication of The FourthTurning in 1997.This book is the fulfillment of that pledge. As we proceeded, Dr. Elaine Kamarck of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government freely offered valuable insights and perceptive comments that demonstrated her deep knowledge of American politics and government. We have also had the pleasure of trading political opinions with Dudley Buffa, who provided us extremely useful suggestions on how to organize the book. We particularly want to thank several institutions and individuals for graciously allowing us full access to high-quality survey data before and during our research for this book. We appreciate the generosity of Dr. David C. King, research director at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. David kindly provided the results of the Institute’s excellent surveys of the Millennial Generation and, equally important, his deep understanding of the political attitudes and behavior of this crucial xiii Prelims.qxd 11/23/07 4:26 PM Page xiii generation of young Americans. We are also grateful to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press for providing early use of the results of several important studies, and to Jim Albrittain of Pew for tabulating that data so that it met our specific intellectual needs and difficult time constraints. We owe our largest debt of gratitude to Frank N. Magid Associates, a company widely recognized as the world’s most important and influential communications market research and consultation firm. In 2007, Magid celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, marking a period during which it shaped the broadcasting and communications industries to a greater degree than any company of its type. In particular, Mike Hais would like to thank Frank N. Magid, the firm’s founder, who was a constant source of knowledge and inspiration during Mike’s more than twenty-two years at the company, and Brent Magid, the firm’s current CEO, who is guiding the company toward at least another half-century of achievement. We also want to express our special gratitude to Jack MacKenzie, executive vice president of Magid, as well as president of Magid’s Millennial Strategy Program. Jack, a personal friend and former Dodger season ticket co-holder with both of us, counsels many of America’s major corporations on the most effective way to communicate with the Millennial Generation. He provided numerous important insights into the behaviors and attitudes of this generation that are so central to this book and to America’s future. Jack also generously arranged for us to be able to include, and have full and exclusive access to, the results of questions on three waves of Magid’s periodic surveys of the Millennial Generation. These as yet unpublished surveys were conducted online in January 2006, December 2006, and May 2007, with far larger samples than is normal in commercial market research, thereby permitting us to examine generational political attitudes and behavior with remarkable precision . The first survey interviewed a national sample of 2,468 Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Baby Boomers, enabling us to compare the political attitudes and behaviors of these generations on a wide range of matters.The sampling error for this survey was ±2 percent for results based on the entire sample. The second research wave dealt with political matters in even more detail and was conducted with an online sample of 1,577 American adults. This resulted in a sampling error of ±2.5 percent for results based on the entire sample. Finally, the third round of survey Acknowledgments xiv Prelims.qxd 11/23/07 4:26 PM Page xiv [3.80.131.164] Project MUSE (2024-03...