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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.548173
EAN: 9780812975291
ISBN: 0812975294
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: May 01, 2001
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: May 01, 2001
Sales Rank: 20039
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
"In the spring of 1984, I went to the northwest of France, to Normandy, to prepare an NBC documentary on the fortieth anniversary of D-Day, the massive and daring Allied invasion of Europe that marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. There, I underwent a life-changing experience. As I walked the beaches with the American veterans who had returned for this anniversary, men in their sixties and seventies, and listened to their stories, I was deeply moved and profoundly grateful for all they had done. Ten years later, I returned to Normandy for the fiftieth anniversary of the invasion, and by then I had come to understand what this generation of Americans meant to history. It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced."
In this superb book, Tom Brokaw goes out into America, to tell through the stories of individual men and women the story of a generation, America's citizen heroes and heroines who came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War and went on to build modern America. This generation was united not only by a common purpose, but also by common values--duty, honor, economy, courage, service, love of family and country, and, above all, responsibility for oneself. In this book, you will meet people whose everyday lives reveal how a generation persevered through war, and were trained by it, and then went on to create interesting and useful lives and the America we have today.
"At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world, they were fighting in the most primitive conditions possible across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and the coral islands of the Pacific. They answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs. They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest. They succeeded on every front. They won the war; they saved the world. They came home to joyous and short-lived celebrations and immediately began the task of rebuilding their lives and the world they wanted. They married in record numbers and gave birth to another distinctive generation, the Baby Boomers. A grateful nation made it possible for more of them to attend college than any society had ever educated, anywhere. They gave the world new science, literature, art, industry, and economic strength unparalleled in the long curve of history. As they now reach the twilight of their adventurous and productive lives, they remain, for the most part, exceptionally modest. They have so many stories to tell, stories that in many cases they have never told before, because in a deep sense they didn't think that what they were doing was that special, because everyone else was doing it too.
"This book, I hope, will in some small way pay tribute to those men and women who have given us the lives we have today--an American family portrait album of the greatest generation."
In this book you'll meet people like Charles Van Gorder, who set up during D-Day a MASH-like medical facility in the middle of the fighting, and then came home to create a clinic and hospital in his hometown. You'll hear George Bush talk about how, as a Navy Air Corps combat pilot, one of his assignments was to read the mail of the enlisted men under him, to be sure no sensitive military information would be compromised. And so, Bush says, "I learned about life." You'll meet Trudy Elion, winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, one of the many women in this book who found fulfilling careers in the changed society as a result of the war. You'll meet Martha Putney, one of the first black women to serve in the newly formed WACs. And you'll meet the members of the Romeo Club (Retired Old Men Eating Out), friends for life.
Through these and other stories in The Greatest Generation, you'll relive with ordinary men and women, military heroes, famous people of great achievement, and community leaders how these extraordinary times forged the values and provided the training that made a people and a nation great.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.com Review:
Tom Brokaw was born in 1940, but it wasn't until he was a famous newscaster that he began to contemplate what his parents' generation--those born between 1910 and the mid-1920s--had accomplished. Narrating his own book, he discusses the sacrifices those men and women made: the bodily harm they suffered in war, the diligence with which they built families and businesses, the courage they displayed in rehabilitating their war wounds, the integrity and values that infused their lives. "They never whined or whimpered," Brokaw notes. The stories these men and women tell Brokaw are consistently startling--triumphant, tragic, courageous, sad, miraculous. Although Brokaw never gets maudlin or sappy, most people will find it impossible to listen to this audiobook with dry eyes. (Running time: 4 hours, 3 cassettes) --Lou Schuler
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
The Greatest Generation is an easy read yet it's also even handed and fair. I agree with Brokaw's point that those who went to war (pacific or europe) are the generation that built America and modernized it. The generation which offered its unconditional love and service to the United States and ran to her aid when she needed them. This generation (now in their late 70s or 80s) came home from the front lines and contributed to the re-construction of a country that suffered from the New Deal, Great ... Read More
Rating:  -
After sharing the wonderful accounts of this self sacrificing generation so fairly, Tom Brokow has currently chosen to throw them all overboard. Everything they fought against is finding its way into our society today, under the blind eye of today's main stream media. Brokow's lack of journalistic integrity and bias has been completely exposed. His recent interview on the PBS Charlie Rose show has demonstrated, with Brokow's own words, he didn't do his journalistic duty and find out who Senator ... Read More
Rating: -
I just finished this book. I know it's years old, but it's new to me. I sat down with it expecting to basically have a written version of any History Channel documentary about the World War II generation. In some respects, I suppose that's what it is. On the other hand, the vignettes and profiles that Brokaw has included in his book are fascinating, and some are heartrending. To watch one's brother receive a fatal injury in battle, and be helpless to do anything about it . . . that's just horrific. ... Read More
Rating:  -
The copy recieved was not as described. I was expecting a clean used copy and I recieved a copy that was used as a text book and had yellow & green highlighter and hand written notes in the margins. I could not give it as a gift.
Rating: -
Tom Brokaw has coined the World War II generation the greatest generation ever. In this book, he chronicles the lives and times of those who fought in World War II and how it affected them. The book is broken up into sections with miniature biographies of individuals telling of there lives before, during, and after the War.
Undeniably, there were tremendous sacrifices by those in uniform and at home and the whole country rallied to help the troops win the war. The book includes average Joe and ... Read More
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