The Greatest Generation Book Review

The Greatest Generation was the generation during World War II and the Great Depression. What made them great were their perseverance, patriotism, and sacrifice throughout the WWII era. The citizens that make up the Greatest Generation served their country in any way possible until they could no longer serve. Tom Brokaw describes the backgrounds of theses patriotic Americans, as well as their experiences during and after the war.

People naturally like to generalise over a large group, it puts less stress on our brain. One such generalisation is the generations that people talk about, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millenials, and Gen Z. In “Move Over, Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z” Alex Williams discusses a possible outcome of what Gen Z is to be as compared to the Millennials.

In the article “The Greatest Generation: The Great Depression and the American South,” Jeffrey DeRoven analyzes the economic struggles of the American South during the Great Depression in order to figure out why some people refer to people from that time period as the “greatest generation.” Below, this paper overviews DeRoven’s thesis, purpose, stance, audience, usage of literary techniques as well as logos, pathos and ethos, logical fallacies, and ultimately concludes with an opinion suggesting that DeRoven’s analysis is mostly sound and useful, but limited in proving his thesis.

In the beginning, Gillespie immediately captures the reader's attention with a well placed hook. The hook states, “...but we’re on the verge of a nasty old fights between baby boomers and their ‘Greatest Generation’ parents look like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.” (Gillespie 1) This causes the reader to get a visual of what Gillespie is thinking as he rights this article and is a representation of how he feels about what he’s writing about. Next, Gillespie attempts to appeal to the reader’s logical side by the use of statistics. Such as, “Seventy-one percent of American adults think of 18-to-29-year-olds-millennials, basically-as ‘selfish’, and 65% of us think of them as ‘entitled”.” (Gillespie 1) immediately shows the reader exactly what his claim is. These two quotes are amongst a number of others that Gillespie uses to support his claim that, millennials are selfish and entitled, due to the overprotection from parents. The only problem is that some of his statistics could be used in counter arguments against him. This is seen in the quote, “Students reporting bullying is one-third of what it was 20 years ago.” (Gillespie 1) where the reader begins to see holes in Gillespie’s claims. So, Gillespie discusses his truth of what is the problem with helicopter parents and their

In The Greatest Generation Grows up: American Childhood in the 1930’s, Kirste Lindenmeyer argues that the children of the Great Depression were the targets of and influenced the social and political change during the depression. Lindenmeyer does this by using many first-hand accounts to support her claim. Lindenmeyer then uses the lack of work as a chapter to also support her argument. Another point that Lindenmeyer successfully uses is the change in educational policies and regulations to reinforce her claim on the political side of it. There is a point that can hurt some of Lindenmeyer’s sources is that some of her primary sources were taken note of many years after the Great Depression.

The book “The Greatest Generation”, by Tom Brokaw, is about the men and women who were born in the 1920’s and how they are what he deems to be the greatest generation thus far. He believes this generation is so tremendous because of the fact they did not demand respect for what they did and went through. Though may sacrificed as much as their lives, they do not think higher of themselves. Even through all their struggling they managed to have enough strength leave everything behind and fight for their country. I believe Tom Brokaw is correct when he says they are there greatest generation. People then would support the war and the men who fought in it, whereas nowadays there are just as many people against war, fighting, and the men and

In Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation, the author portrays ordinary people of a certain generation as having qualities of greatness and heroism. He tells stories of average people that lived inspiring lives through many hardships, and declares today’s society as the beneficiary of their challenging work and commitment. Brokaw’s generous and proficient use of imagery helps to persuade the reader to believe that the people of “the greatest generation” are, indeed, heroic. He defines the strength and resilience of “the greatest generation” by what they were able to confront and overcome.

This generational gap was what altered the development of real learning, for it allowed Generation Me children to assume that hard work was not needed to succeed and to learn. Due to the different mindset that was developed through the gap, self-esteem was not lacking in GenMe. So, it is understandable why Boomers felt that an individual should be more important than society. They had to go through life fighting for what they believed in, causing what Tannen calls the “human spirit” to take the blow (Tannen, 419). She states, “contentious public discourse becomes a model for behavior and sets the tone for how individuals experience their relationship to others and the society we live in” (Tannen, 419). Baby Boomers did not have self-esteem so they enforced it on their children, keeping them from ever feeling that way. The cause of them feeling this way is that “the human brain is almost infinitely malleable” (Carr, 70). That malleability was used by Baby Boomer parents in order for them to set a sense of self-esteem and individualism in their children. This alteration of their children’s minds was Boomer parents’ first mistake, for it did not allow children to discover their own worth. Rather, it supplied them with false encouragement, and prevented the possibility of engaging themselves in a society where everyone works together and is confident, but not individualistic.

In the decades after the “Good War,” many attempts have been made to extol this generation in the media. Myth and the Greatest Generation: A Social History of Americans in World War II by Kenneth D. Rose, attempts to shine light on how life actually was for the generation that survived World War II, and came to be known as the greatest generation, rather than how that generation appears to us today.

The Greatest Generation was the generation during World War II and the Great Depression. What made them great was their perseverance, patriotism, and sacrifice throughout the WWII era. The citizens that make up the Greatest Generation served their country in any way possible until they could no longer serve. Tom Brokaw describes the backgrounds of theses patriotic Americans, as well as their experiences during and after the war.

“The Greatest Generation” is a term used to describe the generation who were the children of the Great Depression and who became the adults of the Second World War (Brokaw). There may be strong reasons why other generations may be considered great. The generation born during the war undertook the task of putting a man on the moon. This is perhaps the most important of all human endeavors. They are certainly worthy of being considered great but not the greatest. In fifteen years America and indeed the world endured the crushing poverty of the Great Depression and the costliest war in all of human history. The enormous struggles and accomplishments of this generation is what makes it the greatest.

Generation Sell Response Draft In his article Generation Sell, William Deresiewicz attempts to explains to us what he believes to be the values, ideals, and desired social form of the “youth culture” known as the Millennials. He explains the characteristics, the emotions, the values, and the social forms each previous “youth culture” had or desired that defined them. The hippies, the beatniks, the punks, and even the slackers all had defining traits, which were quite transparent according to Deresiewicz.

Chapter 4 of “Generation Me” by Jean M Twenge; a professor of psychology at San Diego State University. Twenge explains that Generation Me is going through depression at a higher rate than the previous generations, causing loneliness and isolation. Twenge does a fantastic job showing all the statics from Americans born before 1915, compared with Americans born in Generation Me. Twenge describes how college students are stressed after college trying to find a job. Twenge says that student’s loans used to be payed off with a part time job in college thing have now changed. Twenge also states on how the economic system is changing. Twenge shows that things are changing for Generation Me, chapter 4 is a true warning sign for Generations to come.

Throughout the course of history, generations have always been separated by distinct features. Poodle skirts, large hair, neon colors, short shorts; the list goes on. While it is the differences between generations that are easy to spot and criticize, the similarities are what must be distinguished to bond generations together. To display that while each generation possess their own ideas and trends, the generations before and after are not so different after all. The generation that created the Star Wars comics and our own generation that took to the Harry Potter novels are examples of two generations with striking similarities, even though they were developed at prominently different eras.

“You are all a lost generation…” Ernest Hemingway writes in his book The Sun Also Rises. The lost generation often refers to a group of writers during the 1920’s; it consisted of many writers such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald and Hemingway were two of many great literary writers who attempted to change the world in a post World War 1 era. Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby both impacted the 1920’s world with their common themes and beliefs portrayed through their literary works. A similar theme between the two works was the impact the war had on the people of the world.