Historian,
economist, demographer and best-selling author Neil Howe
was the Keynote Speaker at the 15th Annual NACCU
Conference in Las Vegas. Howe’s presentation was provided
by the generous support of Wells Fargo Bank.
Neil is perhaps America’s foremost
authority on generational change and has coauthored many
books about the collective personalities of today’s
generations—who they are, what motivates them, and how
they will shape America’s future. These books include
Generations, 13th Gen, The Fourth Turning, and
Millennials Rising, about today’s new youth generation.
Aside from cofounder of LifeCourse
Associates, his titles include: senior associate at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),
senior advisor to the Concord Coalition, and advisor on
public policy to the Blackstone Group. LifeCourse
Associates has recently released several application
books on the new Millennial Generation—for the military,
colleges, pop-culture producers, and the workplace. Neil
Howe’s work with Millennials in college was featured by
CBS’ 60 MINUTES in 2004 and 2005.
Howe’s books on generations, coauthored
with William Strauss, are all best sellers widely used
by businesses and nonprofits and by political leaders of
both parties. Their first book, Generations (1991) is a
history of America told as a sequence of generational
biographies. It has been seen on Bill Clinton’s White
House desk, quoted by Rush Limbaugh, raved over by Tony
Robbins, and used as a marketing bible for countless
corporations. Vice President Al Gore called it "the most
stimulating book on American history that I have ever
read" and sent a copy to every member of Congress.
Strauss and Howe’s fifth book,
Millennials Rising (2000) has been widely quoted in the
media for its insistence that today’s new crop of teens
and kids are very different from Generation X, and, on
the whole, doing much better than most adults think.
"Forget Generation X—and Y, for that matter," says The
Washington Post, "The authors make short work of most
media myths that shape our perceptions of kids these
days." LifeCourse Associates has since released several
application books on Millennials—including a Recruiting
Millennials Handbook for the United States Army (2001),
Millennials Go To College (2003) and Millennials and the
Pop Culture (2005). Millennials Go To College (second
edition) and Millennials in the Workplace are soon to be
released.
Howe’s articles have appeared in The
Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times,
American Demographics, USA Weekend, and other national
publications. He has drafted several Social Security
reform plans and testified on entitlements many times
before Congress. He has written extensively on budget
policy and aging and on attitudes toward economic
growth, social progress, and stewardship. He coauthors
the "Facing Facts" faxletter for the Concord Coalition
and numerous studies for CSIS (including the Global
Aging Initiative’s Aging Vulnerability Index and The
Graying of the Middle Kingdom: The Economics and
Demographics of Retirement Policy in China).
Howe grew up in California, received his
B.A. at U.C. Berkeley, studied abroad in France and
Germany, and later earned graduate degrees in history
and economics from Yale University (M.A. in 1978, M.Phil.
in 1979). He currently lives in Great Falls, Virginia,
with his wife, Simona, and two Millennial children,
Giorgia and Nathaniel.
Click to Download the "Millennials on Campus" PowerPoint
Presentation (PDF)
Session Sponsored by Wells Fargo
