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What did the baby-boomers ever do for us?

5th Jul 2010; 18:00

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RSA Keynote

The baby-boomers saw themselves as pioneers of a new world - freer, fresher, fairer and infinitely more fun. But, argues Francis Beckett, they were wrong; the world they made for their children to live in is a far harsher one than the world they inherited.

Why did sixties radicalism decay so quickly? Why did what began as the most radical-sounding generation for half a century turned into a random collection of youthful style gurus who thought the revolution was about fashion; sharp-toothed entrepreneurs and management consultants who believed revolution meant new ways of selling things; and Thatcherites, who thought freedom meant free markets, not free people?

How did we reach the situation where the benefits enjoyed by the babyboomers - free healthcare, schooling, university education, mortgages and pensions, are denied to the youth of today?

Join Francis Beckett, one of the UK's leading writers and commentators, as he analyses why he believes the children of the sixties lived the dream and failed the future.

Speaker: Francis Beckett, journalist, broadcaster, playwright and contemporary historian and author of What Did the Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us, (Biteback Publishing, July 2010).

Suggested hashtag for Twitter users: #rsaboomers