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Summary: DOING AWAY WITH STALLS ALLOWS GREATNESS!
Review: I am very blessed. I still have parents and many aunts and uncles who are alive and healthy and well into their eighties. This is the generation Tom Brokaw writes about. It is also a generation that does not like to talk about the past. Mr. Brokaw has given us a gift by sharing these stories. I question; however, his question: Are their children, our generation, worthy as their beneficiaries? "The Greatest Generation" had a common goal to rally around, and many shared customs and values. They also had a "burning platform" to fight for. Our generation has made much more progress to benefit society, created vast improvements in knowledge, technology and peace without the burning platform. Both generations are to be praised, for they both succeeded beyond all odds in very different ways. I ask Mr. Brokaw's question for our children and hope that the answer is the same. There is reason to hope, for the "stalls" that impede progress and do not build character are being challenged more each day. A inspiring book I just read, "The 2,000 Percent Solution", describes these stalls and a process to move beyond the stalls to achieve 20 times the benefits, do so 20 times as fast, or at 1/20th the cost. Here are a few of the stalls we face: The Communications Stall (our messages are not understood), The Disbelief Stall (We can't do it), The Tradition Stall (We've always done it this way), The Bureaucratic Stall (too many unproductive policies and procedures), The Misconception Stall (based on poor assumptions) and The Unattractiveness Stall (Not wanting to wade in murky waters). Surely, this generation has challenges to face, vast opportunities, and "The Greatest Generation" who gave us the role model to follow.
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Summary: This book should be one everyone's reading shelf.
Review: My father was a WWII veteran. His service days were seldom discussed. Faded photos of a strikingly handsome young man of German and Irish descent are among my few mementos from the days of his infantry training in Newfoundland and his tour of duty in Southern Italy. His older brother spoke often of New Caledonia, doubtless the only foreign adventure of a naive young adolescent who matured too quickly in the Great Depression. Dad's brother thirteen months his junior, was a medic somewhere in the European theater. He, unlike my father, enjoyed the company of fellow vets in his later years. His pleas to my father went unheeded; Daddy was not a joiner, for one thing. For another, it has always been a suspicion among my siblings and myself that the memories of war were far from pleasant for my father. He lived until three weeks before the birth of his first grandchild, my oldest daughter. At that time I was almost twenty-five, and in the quarter of a century I had spent being his daughter, he had been for me kind, loving, stubborn, opinionated -- a mildly prejudiced, yet honest, man who could spin a mesmerizing story, tell hilarious off-color jokes or rant about a perceived injustice, depending upon the swing of his mood. And, it was his moods we were taught to tiptoe around - there was often about him a resigned air of despondency and cynicism. There was the perception of a man who had tilted at windmills and lost, badly and often. After a tough bout with multiple hernia surgeries and emphysema sidelined him into an early retirement in his mid-forties, he reluctantly gave up his beloved,unfiltered Lucky Strikes. Until his death at sixty-two, he would often absentmindedly reach for a cigarette from his top pocket after a meal. At fleeting moments, his penetratingly beautiful blue eyes would gaze at something far away. "What are you thinking of daddy," I wanted so to ask. I always hesitated; the asking seemed an unforgivable offense, a trespass onto the privacy of the place to which he had withdrawn. He viewed the world as a tough place, trying too hard was not his recommendation nor his example to his four children. You accept your lot in life, whatever it is, and you just hang in there until life is over. End of story. I failed to learn anything about motivation, ambition or perseverance from my father then. It was not until years after he was lost to me that I realized his iconoclastic independence could teach me volumes. There remains in my older brother's possession, an army trunk filled with the memorabilia of daddy's days in the Civilian Conservation Corps and infantry unit. Once, on a rare occasion when he opened it, daddy teasingly held up photographs of luscious Italian beauties he met during his stay overseas. I, fanatically romantic, tossed aside yellowed letters and his prized pictures of the Third Reich, staring in consternation at photos of buxom, blonde beauties lovingly pressing against the bodies of thin, young American servicemen. It was then I learned that not every Italian woman was of the Neapolitan, Sophia Loren breed. No, my father noted, his blonde hair and blue eyes were his ticket into many family meals from friendly Southern Italians eager to open their homes to a lonely, simpatico Americano. Upon his return home, his stoic, but very Irish Catholic mother admitted burning candles for her three older sons daily before her statue of the Blessed Virgin Mother. Her relief that he had not surprised her with an Italian daughter-in-law was soon stifled with this revelation: "Mom," he told her, "do you have any idea how many Italian mamas decimated the Italian candle supply, praying equally as hard that they would not get stuck with us as their new sons-in-law? Mary, good Jewish mother that she is, must be so confused from all these requests." Brokaw's The Greatest Generation is a compilation of many heartwarming and heart-wrenching tales of the Big One, both abroad and on the homefront. Far from a glorification of war, he instead gives us glimpses into one special generation of American men and women. Arriving in Normandy in the spring of 1984 to prepare a documentary for the 40th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, Brokaw admits he was "simply looking forward to what I thought would be an interesting assignment." Instead his epiphany prodded him to anthologize the stories he heard walking the beaches with American veterans who "...faced great odds and a late start, but (they) did not protest. 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, often hand to hand, in the most primitive conditions possible, across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria. They fought their way up the necklace of South Pacific Islands few had ever heard of before and made them a fixed part of American history - islands with names like Iwo Jima, Guadacanal, Okinawa. They were in the air every day, in skies filled with terror, and they went to sea on hostile waters far removed from the shores of their homeland." These are tales of ordinary people, made extraordinary by events beyond their control, events that earned them an unrequested place in history. Here was a people who, fully realizing they lived in an imperfect democratic experiment, came to do combat with the absolute evil of two regimes seeking to destroy human rights and indulge in ethnic cleansing. Veterans, like Andy Rooney, then a young reporter for The Stars and Stripes who went to Buchenwald to witness firsthand the rumors of atrocities there. He later wrote: "I was ashamed of myself for ever having considered refusing to serve in the Army. For the first time I knew that any peace is not better than any war." Brokaw's book is one you'll want to access often for all its poignancy, tragedy, triumph, humor, pride, sacrifice and unbelievable courage. The men, women and families who choose to share their reminisces are but a handful, yet their accumulated experiences will lend an understanding to why Brokaw felt compelled to offer us a collection like this. Further, you will close it knowing why Brokaw, like his readers, have no choice but to conclude: "As I came to know many of them, and their stories, I became more convinced of my judgment on that day marking the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day. This is the greatest generation any society has produced. ###
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Summary: Wish I would've known a WWII vet when they & I were younger!
Review: I think this book is excellent. I am learning things that I never knew before. Like there were women pilots for the service during WWII, but here at home. I learned alot about discriminatory practices towards women that were acceptable at the time. My only regret, is that so many of the veterans are dying off or mentally unable to talk about their experiences. I work in a nursing home and the one veteran who is mentally fit, told me, "It was too horrible to think about. I don't like to talk about it." The other vets have Alzheimers, or physical conditions that prohibit them from talking. But these men have so much to teach us about patriotism, and loyalty and honor. And I don't know if the young men and women of today have those traits...so many seem self centered and "me" only. I think it is a great book and recommend it to anyone who wants to know about the men who fought for our country during WWII.
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Summary: Superficial, repetitive tales. No depth and finally tedious
Review: It is not to take anything away from the incredible deeds of the WWII generation to say that had this book been written by anyone other than Brokaw it would not have been so welcomed. The stories really are repetitive - the triumph of goodness, perseverance etc. The format of the book is real pop culture. Surely, these people deserve something better thought out than a group of short stories.
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Summary: Talking head gives USA Today version of WWII.
Review: Tom Brokaw's left wing views and hero worship of high level Democrats is as obvious here as they are on the NBC news. Full of promise? Yes. Dull? Yes. Much thought for the 'common man' that fought WWII? No. If you were not a politician, a bigwig of some kind, or from South Dakota, forget it. My father was a WWII veteran and a POW. He came back to work a regular job and raise a regular family. Neither him nor his "twin' showed up here. If the talking head had really done some true research instead of glorifying all of his buddies, it could have been an very good book. The only point he made, to ad nauseum, was that it was a generation of hard-working, religious, and family-oriented people. His atttempt to try to judge their actions by todays overly politically correct standards did all of them a real disservice. We did not have Butterball Kennedy to tell them how to act back them. If he asked any of them what they thought of his buddy Slick Willie, he sure did not let us in on their answers. One can only wonder why. After all, what would you expect those common folk to think of a draft dodging, womanizing, pathological liar. Brokaw's next book should be "the Greatest American ever" about his boy Clinton. No, really he needs to go back to being a talking head and stay there.
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Summary: Self promoting at the expense of these deserving better.
Review: Being born the son of one of "The Greatest Generation," I share the belief that those who defended our country in the largest conflict known to man, are well desired of any praise afforded then. In this, Mr. Brokaw and I agree. I'll go futher to say; any book that preports to accomphish such a task is will worth picking up. I do take exception through when the author, a well-respected television journalist, uses as a front so noble a subject for not only his own self-promotion, but to air his political views as well. In addition, the simplistic manner in which the book is written makes it more a chore to read that had it been done in a more literate style. Anyone needing a real taste of how this style of book should be written, need look no further than that masterpiece dealing with this same generation, "Hard Times," written by Studs Terkel. It appears Mr. Brokaw has forgotten the one cardinal rule the recorder of history is ultimately committed to providing, naming, stating the facts. His constant editorializing on the failings of the Republican party adds nothing to the content of his writting and serves to relegate the book to his own private soap box from which to wave banner of the Democratic party which he has firmly cleched in his teeth. In segment after segment, be they deal with what transpired severty years past or within the last few years, he never misses an opportunity to paint those of the Republican persuasion in a negative light. He further goes on to to be insensitive enough to include a photograph of the current President of the United States before one's even gotten into the first chapter. Over the course of the next fifty years Mr. Clinton's generation will surely not be viewed with the same reverence as that this book is dedicated to. The reverse is probalby more likely, and as such, Mr. Brokaw has unwittingly provided a touching, through unintentional piece of irony, for Mr. Cliton does represent all the oppostie of "Great" within his generation. Continuing in the same vein of using his work as a personal platform, the author provides us constant reminders as to just who wrote this piece of work. Providing his readers numerous glimpses of himself; as television reporter, as small boy, as the journalist in Normandy,(not once, by twice) as husband, as son, and even as television game show contestant. He manages to include most of the Brokaw clan within the narative, missing only poor old Uncle Claude, who no doubt pumped gas at the local Flying A station in Yankton. In the event the reader is completly incoherant about who the author is, Mr. Brokaw has his name promenently displayed at the top of and centered on every other page. In the final analysis, this book fails to fully recognize the greatness a generation captured. It does capture the animosity the author holds for individuals of a particular political party and for exposing the reader to the rankest form of self promotion.
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Summary: Sound bite literature
Review: This book has about as much depth as a 30 second news story on the six o'clock news with even less fact. Obviously written to sell, not to illuminate the people it pretends to reveal. Come on, is this all that can be said about "The Greatest Generation"? Any PBS program dealing with WWII is infinitely superior and informative.
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Summary: A valuable lesson in patriotism
Review: Wonderful stories about Americans who sacrificed for the good of the country. This book should be mandatory reading for Civics classes from this day forward. The people depicted and the others of our parents generation are the backbone of this country......and they're fading away.
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Summary: Gen X'ers And Beyond Don't Bother
Review: A credible and capable journalist as Brokaw is he should know better than to compare apples to oranges with his declaration that WWII was the 'greatest generation'. NO ONE, even a knowledgeable man like Tom (sic sic), can make a statement like that. Each generation in the world (and not just those individuals in the USA, Tom) has their own positives and negatives. As an X'er that served in the Army during the Gulf War, and now a capable employee working at a major telecommunications company in the private sector, I can assure you that today's armed forces are more than equal to the task of a (God forbid) third world war. This book disappointed me a great deal. I went into it hoping I'd get a window into this incredible period of time and the people involved. What I GOT was a lecture that reminded me of the tired old tales I've heard a million different times from grouchy old men I've met in my life. Building up or promoting one generation doesn't mean you have to tear down another (or ALL the others!). Mr. Brokaw should know this as a journalist and should've edited out the 'sour grapes' comments from the men and women interviewed. The WWII generation was great, no question at all, but the greatest? And the speculation that todays men and women couldn't have done the same in the same time is laughable. It's the same as saying that those men and women couldn't have achieved the technological feats that the our generation has. There's no way they could've built the Internet or the Stealth Bomber from scratch (a common thread/boast in this book), but I not arrogant enough to assume that they couldn't have if the roles were reversed. It's a shame this 'downspeak' runs throughout the memoirs of this book. It taints otherwise heroic, inspiring, and note-worthy accomplishments. X'ers, don't read this book without expecting some bullets shot in your direction. There's enough for all of those to earn are own combat badges.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent capturing of my parents' generation..
Review: Tom Brokaw does an excellent job of interviewing and capturing the impact of WWII on the lives of these heroes and heroines. The war experience was the common bond that elevated this generation to strive for greatness not only for their own lives but for the entire nation. Brokaw, drawing from his vast experience and skills as a newscaster, is able to extract stories of great bravery and self responsibility from each of the individuals interviewed. He brings out the sense of loyalty, duty, honor, respect and self worth, not found in today's generation.
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