Gen X at Middle Age in Popular Culture

Pamela W. Hollander is associate professor in the education department at Worcester State University in Massachusetts.

• Introduction: Gen X “Brings It” to Adulthood By Pam HollanderChapter 1: Cobra Kai: Flipping the Script and Finding Intergenerational BalanceBy Jim DeysChapter 2: The Countercultural Legacy of Generation X in Twin Peaks By Damon FrankeChapter 3: So Different Yet So Similar: Two Black Generation X Professors Discuss Life at the Half Century Mark By Elwood Watson & Zebulon MiletskyChapter 4: The Revisionist 3Rs: Revolutionize your Revolutions around the SunBy Sarah ParkerChapter 5: The New Adult: A Media Comparison of Generation X, Millennials, and Generation ZBy Lee OkanChapter 6: From Latchkey Kid to Granny Nanny: How Gen X Shaped the Modern Family By Melissa Vosen CallensChapter 7: Crimes of Trust: Middle-Aged Gen Xers In OzarkBy Marty RappChapter 8: “I Didn’t Feel a Thing”: The Gen X Trauma and Alternative Families in My Golden DaysBy Helena GurfinkelChapter 9: The Aging Dilemma in Forever: Generation X Asks What It Means to LiveBy Kellie DeysAppendix: Personal Ess

A window into our preoccupations as a generation, Hollander’s perceptive book provides Gen Xers (and those who study them) a way to make sense of our distinctive histories: as a group whose parents essentially left us to our own devices, for better or for worse. It comes as a relief and a revelation to learn where we fit in and what marks us as a tribe.