He spends a lot of time on less-relevant examples, but his fundamental point is excellent.

Argues, among other things, that "being a man" today simply means being able to enjoy more intense and expensive adrenaline rushes. Old signifiers of maturity -- like having a career, dressing like a grown-up, and "putting away childish things" -- have gone the way of the fedora. Cross blames marketers for a lot of this, but I think Bauerlein, below, understands broader root causes.

The first half's heavy reliance on survey data is a little numbing, but Bauerlein picks out some key targets -- not only obvious ones like social-networking and the Internet, but also the educators who pander to the Millennials' sense of self-absorption.

This remarkable book has implications across many lines of inquiry, but it meshes well with Bauerlein's argument that young people have no grounded, intellectual connection to politics, only a surface reaction to current events. If we can elect a National Messiah every 4 years, who needs anything more?

Also on my long to-read list. It was first published in 1999, so it's almost a decade older than some of the other titles listed here. But it still looks worth checking out.