Palmetto Publishing Releases Anthony Bongo’s New Memoir Tracing One Boy’s Coming of Age Across America’s Most Turbulent Era
Newly published by Palmetto Publishing, Badlands chronicles the years between the Kennedy assassination and the
Press Release Disclaimer: This is a press release distributed through the XPR Media network. It has not been independently verified by our newsroom.
Charleston, SC, Aug. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Palmetto Publishing has released Badlands, a new memoir by Anthony Bongo. Subtitled “A Requiem for the Class of ’76,” the book retraces the period from 1963 to 1976 through the eyes of a boy becoming a young man during one of the most volatile stretches in modern American history.
The memoir opens with the assassination of President Kennedy and follows Bongo through the seismic events that defined a generation. Civil rights upheaval, the bewildering fog of the Vietnam War, the counterculture’s rise and collapse, the moon landing, and the long shadow of Watergate all filter through the consciousness of a child absorbing a world he cannot yet understand. Framed by a fifty-year class reunion and animated by the spirit of Bruce Springsteen’s defiant anthem, the narrative moves between past and present as Bongo attempts to map the landscape of an era as treacherous as the Dakota badlands themselves.
At its core, the book confronts a question that has haunted an entire generation: whether the experiences of those years ever resolved into meaning, or whether they simply left a permanent mark. Bongo writes candidly about family struggles, personal loss, and the psychological weight of growing up while a nation questioned its own identity. The stakes are both intimate and collective. The promise of a Bicentennial renewal looms over the narrative, and Bongo examines whether that promise was ever truly fulfilled.
Anthony Bongo stated, “There is a period nestled between the Kennedy and Carter administrations that can be categorized as a mysterious and misunderstood era. Those who endured it have their own view of its value and importance. I wrote this book to trace how national trauma shaped us as children and to ask whether we ever made sense of what we lived through.”
The memoir is positioned for Baby Boomer readers who came of age during the 1960s and 1970s and are drawn to reflective works that weave personal experience with cultural history. It sits alongside titles such as Ron Kovic’s Born on the Fourth of July, Roger Kahn’s The Boys of Summer, and Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run autobiography. Bongo holds a Doctorate in Educational Administration from Columbia University and a master’s degree in School Psychology. He built a distinguished career as a school psychologist, principal, and district leader after years working as a landscaper, construction worker, gym owner, and taxi driver. That grounding in both human development and working-class life gives the memoir its psychological depth and plainspoken authority.
Badlands is available for purchase online at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
About the Author: Anthony Bongo holds a Doctorate in Educational Administration from Columbia University and a master’s degree in School Psychology. Over the course of a distinguished second career in education, he served as a school psychologist, principal, and district leader, bringing a deep understanding of human development and the psychological forces that shape young lives. Before entering education, he worked as a landscaper, construction worker, gym owner, and taxi driver, experiences that grounded him in the realities of working-class American life.
In Badlands: A Requiem for the Class of ’76, Bongo turns his trained eye inward, crafting a memoir that revisits one of the most turbulent periods in American history through the perspective of a child and adolescent navigating its upheavals in real time. From the assassination of President Kennedy to the Vietnam War, from the civil rights movement to the crisis of confidence that shadowed the nation into the Bicentennial, the book merges personal psychological struggle with collective American experience. His background in psychology lends the narrative a rare depth, illuminating not just what happened during this mysterious, often misunderstood era, but how it shaped the interior lives of those who endured it.
Now retired, Bongo devotes his time to his grandchildren, consulting, and writing. His work speaks to baby boomers who lived through this transformative period, as well as readers of all backgrounds drawn to history, nostalgia, and the resilience of the human spirit. Follow Anthony Bongo for updates on new releases.
Media Contact: publicity@palmettopublishing.com
Available for interviews: Author, Anthony Bongo
Attachment
Leah Joseph Palmetto Publishing katarina@palmettopublishing.com
Media gallery
