Here are my thoughts on reading The Greatest Generation (I apologise in advance for the verbosity):Over sixteen million American men and women served their country during the second world war and estimates from the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration indicate that just over one million veterans of this war are still alive today. Some reports suggest that veterans of WWII are dying at rates near 1000 per day, which means it will not be long until there are no living memories of the worst war in modern times. This is significant. It is imperative that we maintain in our memories, not simply the legacy of these men and women, but the awful, gruesome affair they endured that earned their generation the title: “The Greatest.” When I first stumbled upon Tom Brokaw’s book, I was working as an aide in the English department of Mountain View High School. While taking inventory of the bookroom, I encountered a floor-to-ceiling bookcase filled with The Greatest Generation. The book’s red white and blue color scheme evoked a veritable gag reflex as I faced the wall of what I supposed to be sentimental, patriotic propaganda. I arrogantly scoffed at the title’s presumption. I truly believed I would never read the book. I am fiercely anti-war, not to mention strongly opposed to the military in general, and I thought this book would be a glamorization of the war and a deification of those who fought; that it would commit the crime mentioned in Vonnegut’s Slaughter-house Five of portraying soldiers as valiant, heroic men, championed for their ability to kill instead of the more accurate depiction of young boys, scared and far from home. No wonder this volume had been seemingly relegated to the back, seldomly visited corner of the department’s storage room, I thought. I would never want to teach it, that’s for sure.Looking back, my views on the military--and even Brokaw’s book--were immature. I made the mistake of lumping the humans in with the whole military machine, forgetting, or perhaps more accurately ignoring, the fact that these people, these young men and women, did not always choose to fight; they were not to blame for creating the mess; and they should not be victimized or held responsible for the evil intentions and actions of other, more powerful, greedy, and corrupt humans. It’s not that I have come to embrace the inevitability of war and the necessity of a military force--which I of course acknowledge, but I will never embrace--but I have come to believe that the best argument against future war may well be the remembrance of wars past. War is not glamorous, it is not pretty, and it is most certainly not clean, and no one knows that better than those that have experienced this hell first hand, which I thankfully have not. I distinctly remember the occasion in my childhood when my father brought the family together to watch Steven Spielberg's amazing film, “Saving Private Ryan,” which is rated R, a taboo in my household growing up. In my naively puritanical bewilderment I reminded my family that we don’t watch those kinds of movies. I will never forget my wonderful grandpa’s quick retort: “The war was rated R,” which was most certainly an understatement. My grandpa was a sailor in the war and he often recounted tales from his time on the LCI 222. His military service shaped the rest of his life, and he lived a great life. He was the greatest man I have ever known.It pains me somewhat to write that last sentence in the past tense. My grandfather died not long ago. His death wasn’t foreshadowed by a long period of struggle. In fact, he was still going to work every day at the company he built shortly after he returned home from the pacific. He undoubtedly possessed the matchless work ethic Brokaw claims to be indicative of his generation. His moral principles were solid because they had endured the fiery kiln of war. He lived a rich and great life, and he was buried with full military honors surrounded by those he’d left behind to carry on his legacy. I was touched by the seriousness with which the color guard performed the ceremony at the funeral. Those former soldiers and volunteers paid a deeply moving tribute to a man they only knew through the bond of service. I was inspired by their words, which have escaped my recollection, and I understood, as his coffin was lowered into the snowy ground, that something significant had occurred. With his passing, my grandfather took with him one of the few remaining first-hand memories of World War Two. With the passing of my grandfather’s generation, we must carefully decide how we will carry their legacy forward. On one hand, we should champion their dignity and valor. These men and women are exemplary. But on the other hand, we must be cautious as to avoid the pitfall of remembering the glory while ignoring the ugly brutality of war that these men and women faced. My fear is that we will become more and more removed from the reality of war since these memories exist in fewer and fewer members of our society. My fear is along the same vein as Santayana’s insight, if we do not remember the past we will be condemned to repeat it. It is not enough to remember the men and women as heros. We must be careful when forming the rhetoric with which we reminisce about war and those who fought them. We must also remember what they endured, in all its grotesquery, so as to never repeat the atrocities. Brokaw’s book succeeds in capturing the humanity of these veterans, and he acknowledges many of my concerns early in the text. He portrays the men and women whose lives he details as the greatest generation, and it is this fact that makes me leery of this book. Time after time he explains how the war positively shaped these people’s lives. Indeed, I have mentioned how the war positively shaped the life of my own grandpa, but that does not mean that the war was good. I think I would be hard pressed to find a lot of people who disagree with my argument, but I feel compelled to make it. We must not confuse good results with good methods. We should read and study books like this one, books that raise our spirits and inspire us to honor our elders, but we should not allow our raised spirits and good feelings to deceive us into believing that war is honorable. It is not. The men and women who served deserve our thanks and admiration, but the blind patriotism and sense of American exceptionalism that occasionally derives from our holidays and celebrations, and even the rhetoric of book titles like, The Greatest Generations, should be kept in check.
The African-American and Japanese coverage in the chapter 'Shame' was the only chapter worth reading. AND HERE ARE A FEW TREATS FROM THE REST OF THE BOOK:1.) "Among other indignities, Holmes is persuaded that Fort Knox dentists experimented on BLACK (my capitals) soldiers.": I'm sorry Brokaw.... have you been drinking? Is Brokaw suggesting that Holmes made this up? 2.) "When my friends ask whether I ever considered divorce I remind them of the old saying 'We've thought about killing each other, but divorce? Never." Yes, let's stay married even though we want to kill each other. (Obviously the quote is flippant, and in jest. Nonetheless, its inclusion says what to the reader? 3.) "They sit in front of computer screens. It may be educational but they don't know how to play tag, baseball, whatever the hell else. Part of growing up is learning to fight with each other." i.e. if you're not a fighter, or didn't fight growing up, you're nothing. Brokaw's inclusions of first hand accounts are horrible. Little is spent with their actual experiences, and too much is spent with the aftermath of their GREAT and WONDERFUL lives because they saw through 'hard times'. The context is steeped in sentimentality and Norman Rockwell paintings, which shames so much of what OTHER WW2 veterans went through. Guess what? Some people came out of the war and never recovered. But let's not talk about them! I am thinking those losers didn't get in fist fights when they were young - so Brokaw doesn't want to include them.GAY PEOPLE: No such thing. I guess there were no gay men in the WW2? Lesbians?NATIVE AMERICANS: One memoir is sort of included (but he is part Apache, not full), and the other is of a white family who tried to adopt a Native American boy, who ended up trying to burn their house down. They got rid of him, despite feeling bad about it. Poor kid. SECOND HALF OF BOOK: Famous people and Senators, Congressmen, etc. Basically it seems like these are Brokaw's friends.Finale: Brokaw is not a reporter, he is a newscaster. There's a big difference. And this book exemplifies that -- as Frankenfurter says -- in spades!
What do You think about The Greatest Generation (2001)?
Journalist Tom Brokaw has compiled a series of profiles of prominent Americans, male and female, who served their country during World War II. This is about my father's generation, most of whom grew up poor during the Great Depression and who served their country in World War II. After the war, they built America into the power and civilization that it became. The greatest common denominator among these men and women was their honesty and sense of self-responsibility. Before the war, many of their parents had lost farms and businesses. They had no expectations about the future. Once the war was over, the formative experience of work habits and values forged during the Great Depression, followed by the discipline and leadership training of the military combined to form the most productive generation in American history. The GI Bill, which provided money for veterans for a college education, was the most successful American education program in history. Older and with a desire to make up for five lost years, the returned veterans became the most serious college students ever. Of note, those who had grown up doing farm work before the war were used to working very long hours. And on the farm if something broke or you had to do something new, you didn't have anyone to ask how to do it. You had to figure it out for yourself. After the war, when they went to work in America's factories and other businesses, they were enormously productive and resourceful.Their contribution was not just economic but in community service and civic contributions. Among their ranks were the forerunners who worked for racial and gender legal equality as well as many other social justice issues such as the war on poverty. A few veterans who became political leaders later on were either opposed to the war on Vietnam or had strong misgivings about it. But as Brokaw cites, of the younger generations today, Vietnam is just a fading memory, that is if they ever knew anything about it at all. Likewise, most veterans have very mixed feelings about the use of the Atomic bomb on Japan. And there was was also a great deal of disagreement on the role that government should play in the lives of citizens. Now, a generation later, they are disappointed with the impact that affluence has had on America. They see my generation--the baby boomers, the "Me" generation--as self-centered, of having a sense of entitlement, and being preoccupied with self-fulfillment. From my admittedly pessimistic perspective, I see a continued decline with the generation younger than I having stepped down further into a mentality of consumerism, self-gratification, video games, and escapism. The Greatest Generation had a critical mass of shared values that no longer exists in America.
—Stephen Bauer
my friend Joyce loaned me this book and I am having a hard time putting it down.. I have always been interested in WWII and this book allows a glimpse into the lives of the men and women who eagerly served their country either here or abroad. one thing I find so entrancing are the individual life stories. It starts with where they were in their lives when the war was raging, what was going on in our country at that time and before, how they participated and what happened to them after the war was over. I also learned alot about the womens roles in society and in the war effort. and I think it explains the thinking of that generation during the 60's. How they were raised during some very difficult times. It isn't surprising that so many were ready to supp port and defend this country. They had all ready been doing that to help support their families. Tom Brokaw is a great writer who puts you in the moment of their lives.
—Melanie
I have wondered if my grandparents generation, the ones that were children of the depression and in their early twenties during WW2, were braver than my generation. I was talking to my dad about this and what he thought. He told me some things that Tom Brokaw said about this very topic and it lead me to want to read his book. I enjoyed reading this and have been able to form my own opinion in answer to my earlier question. Lets just say it's not really a matter of bravery but what we expect from this life and what we feel we need to do to achieve it. The Greatest Generation and Generation X (my generation) have some pretty different ideas. And then there's the generation after me, generation Y or as I call them; generation Y bother...hehehe!
—Donette
