In his preface to “The Time of Our Lives” (Random House; $26), Tom Brokaw asks, “What happened to the America I thought I knew? Have we simply wandered off course, but only temporarily? Or have we allowed ourselves to be so divided that we are easy prey for hijackers who could steer us onto a path to a crash landing?”

It is a much different world than the one in which Brokaw began his career in journalism half a century ago and he reflects on the often repeated question: “Will our children and grandchildren have better lives than us?” He believes it is time for an American conversation about legacy and destiny and as a child of the 20th century, he looks to the 21st century with some observations on how we might realize the promise of a good tomorrow.

Brokaw has devised a useful way for us to follow the magnitude of the changes that a century has produced and the prospect of those yet to come. He has divided the book into four parts with a number of questions, each of which covers facts about some phase of our society, followed by a relevant query, a look back at the past, comments about the present state of affairs, and his take on the promise for the future if we make the right choices after considering them carefully.

The “Second Big Bang” is how he describes the explosion of new technologies, and he wonders if we will master their use or become hostage to them. Every new technology, be it steam engine, electricity, nuclear power, genetic engineering or space flight, has prompted concerns about benefits and penalties; none of them changed the world so swiftly as the power of cyber technology. That technology has given us uncounted benefits, but in some ways has become toxic: modern communication – whether Internet blogs, television political ads, cable and network talk show hosts – has contributed to an incivility and political polarization. An impatient Brokaw writes: “Modern means of communication are now so pervasive they might as well be part of the air we breathe, and therefore they require tempered remarks from all sides. Otherwise, that air just becomes more and more toxic until it is suffocating. Personally, I’d like the partisan combatants on both sides of the aisle to explain their attitudes to a junior high civic class. Maybe their adolescent audience could teach them some manners and lessons in teamwork.”

On the subject of education, Brokaw reports that in 2010, it was estimated that more than 40 million Americans are functionally illiterate; 10 percent of students at four-year colleges take remedial reading courses. By 2009, American 15-year-olds ranked 25th out of 34 countries in math, 14th in reading, and 17th in science. In 2010, the big educational initiative, Race to the Top, offered states $4.35 billion in grants to change their educational policies to make them more effective. That is less than the U.S. Department of Defense spent in Iraq in June of the same year. He asks: “Does that make sense to you?”

Between January 2007 and January of this year, an estimated 9 million workers lost their jobs, took pay cuts, were furloughed or were working part-time. Brokaw gives anecdotal material about several individuals and families who weathered the storm and some who did not. Among other models, he tells how his own daughters, although relatively well-off, have achieved the American dream of homeownership in modest houses (bought with their father’s help); their finances are constantly strained by the high cost of housing maintenance and education for their children. “This is not what our daughters expected when they left home to study at good universities ... They are astonished and concerned for those of their generation who aren’t able to fill the gaps between income and the fundamentals. That is, or should be, a lesson for our time – for all of us – whatever our financial status.”

A book that offers so much in the way of empirical experiences and probing questions can’t be given justice in a short review. Suffice to say that you can’t go wrong exploring with Brokaw such matters as volunteerism, public service, economics, politics, newspapers, patriotism, friendship, joys of grandparenthood and making it through the dot-com age. Brokaw’s message seems to be that if we don’t get mired in a moral quicksand of doubts and selfishness, we will navigate the quagmire successfully if and when we learn to be adults and pull together.

Tom Brokaw is the author of five bestsellers: “The Greatest Generation,” “The Greatest Generation Speaks,” “An Album of Memories,” “A Long Way from Home,” and “Boom!” With a degree in political science from the University of South Dakota, he joined NBC News in 1966, serving as White House correspondent.