BOOK REVIEW: “The Next America” by Paul Taylor and the Pew Research Center (PublicAffairs, 384 pages, $17.99)

Our country is in the midst of the most bizarre — and most lengthy — election season I can remember, one that simultaneously fascinates and repels many Americans. With candidates spouting divergent opinions, and even facts, hard data about policy matters can comfort the electorate.

Such data are abundantly found in Paul Taylor’s, “The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown.”

The book presents an enormous amount of information about changes in our society and economy. Happily, it presents that information in a logical and palatable way.

Taylor will be in Charlemont on Aug. 10. A former journalist, he spent more than a decade working at the Pew Research Center. The center, listed as co-author of the book, calls itself “a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.”

Taylor draws on data gathered by Pew (the book is replete with charts and graphs that the reader is free to peruse or skim as needed) to describe the challenges that face Americans as we begin to confront demographic facts.

Taylor notes two simultaneous major changes in the 21st century.

First, he explains, the country is aging. Second, it is becoming increasingly diverse.

These changes set up the generational showdown of the book’s subtitle, pitting many of the characteristics and interests of the two largest age cohorts — baby boomers and millennials — against each other.

The book goes into fascinating detail about factors that shade the differences between generations. These include variations in political orientation, in earning power, in technological literacy, in rates of marriage and in religious affiliation.

Taylor also discusses some of the consequences of the changes he describes, particularly the coming insolvency of Social Security and Medicare.

These programs help keep many older Americans out of poverty. As they eat up more and more of the federal budget, less money is available to help younger Americans deal with our changing social and economic landscape.

Throughout most of the book, Taylor is careful to hew to the Pew Research Center’s mandate not to adopt specific policy positions. Near the end, however, he does make a few suggestions about how Americans can come together to make our future less threatening.

He is surprisingly optimistic about where the data lead us in terms of our ability to cope with the changes before us.

He reminds readers that the generations he discusses are related to each other, that Americans are a family as well as a society and that, in general, family members do their best to take care of each other. I hope his remarkable book inspires many Americans to get to work as national caregivers.

Paul Taylor will address the Charlemont Forum at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 10, at the Federated Church on Route 2 in Charlemont. This program is free and open to the public, although donations are welcome.

Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook” and “Pulling Taffy.” Visit her website, www.TinkyCooks.com