The Greatest Generation

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Summary: Brokaw hits the bullseye - a must read for all baby boomers!
Review: At age 48 I often wondered how our country ever made it through the Great Depression and WWII to become such a great superpower. Many pundits and authors have offered various socilological and economic threories on this topic. Brokaw makes a simple but powerful statment - America is where it is today for one basic reason, our parents were tough, hard working and had a vision of the future they wanted for their children.

I just wish my father was still alive today, so I could stop by his house, sit at the kithchen table and tell him that I now understand why he and mom sacrificed so much for us kids and harped on us constantly to get an education and succeed in life.

Brokaw captures the energy and passsion of a generation that created the "American Dream" and we now face the task of preserving what they gave us for our children.

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Summary: Great intriguing tribute to the "Greatest Generation"
Review: Tom Brokaw -- anchor of the NBC Nightly News -- writes a great book! His reverence for "The Greatest Generation," people born in the 1920's, is clear, compelling and powerful. With a strong base of historical insights and information, Brokaw builds a puissant argument: people born in the 1920's, who came to age during the depression, fought WWII in their twenties, came home and fostered the babie boomer generation and continued to become great and humble leaders (on whole, each in their own right) are members of the greatest generation that any society has ever produced. A great book for anyone interested in 1920+ history, stories of triumph (some of famous persons (eg. George Bush, Ben Bradlee, Andy Rooney) -- some not), and brillance.

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Summary: JUST LIKE THE NEWS
Review: As a student of World War Two, and the son and nephew of servicemen in that conflict,I eagerly awaited this book.What I got was the same shallow, one-dimensional and incomplete story that Brokaw(and the others)present day after day on the News.

In his book, Brokaw focuses unfairly on only a small segment of this wonderful generation--those that have made it big financially and by reputation.I quickly found the book to contain a rather elitist cast that did not resonate with me.

And, as is the style these days, Brokaw focused only on "Ike's Boys" which is the same complaint I have with Stephen Ambrose:that many Americans volunteered for the military and were drafted during the Depression to ease the pain of family hardships, and wound up suffering and dying in places like Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Corregidor and Iwo Jima. Why did he choose to ignore these brave and selfless young Americans? They endured even more ghastly torment!

Also, if you look at the demographics, many people came from cities like New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco--yet the author chose to ignore the sacrifice these people made as well.

I found the chapter heading narratives to be very superficial and almost repetitious.

There are much better writers like Toland, Manchester,Weinstein or Halberstam who would do justice to the topic.

I am sorry to say that this book does not do justice to what indeed has been "The Greatest Generation."

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Summary: Heard Tim Russert interview Tom Brokaw...Stunning!
Review: Since the book is not available yet..it hasn't been read,HOWEVER, the interview by Tim Russert was so unbelievably good I rushed here to order...I am so pleased to know Tom will do a reading on CD..that will be all the more pleasurable.

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Summary: This book is a great tribute to the men and women of WW II.
Review: Tom Brokaw tells us of the everyday people who went to war and served their country. They return to build the United States as a superpower. This book captures the greatness of the generation and what we can learn from them. Duty, honor and hardwork has made this country great and makes me proud the accomplishments of my grandparents.

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Summary: It was high time that vets of ww2 got some notice,well done
Review: Having served in the 76th., inf.div. this book brings back many memories of my youth.

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Summary: Joe Sixpack at his best.
Review: Common men, doing uncommon things.This theme is sprinkled throughout Tom Brokaw's book "The greatest generation". After reading it I realized why. Its twenty something Joe Sixpack at his best. The people portrayed in this collection of partial biographies show what the human spirit is capable of when faced with an overwhelming task. These men and women sacrificed for a common cause, the country was truly united.They display as much patriotism,unselfishness, and faith in God today as during World War II, if not more.The book is not only on the war and its hero's, there are stories of the struggle of women on the homefront taking jobs left vacant by men going to war. Also, the stories of African American soldiers fighting a battle on two fronts, one against Hitler the other against a racist military, are particularly compelling. Foot soldiers, medical troops, flying aces its all here in an extremely readable text. The stories are separated out so it can be picked up and read off and on at ones leisure. The likelyhood of putting it down too often is remote. As a twenty two-year-old college student, I am keenly interested in what my grandfather, a WWII veteran, might have been involved in. My grandfather, like most veterans in the book, does not furnish his past war experiences freely. I can read this book and discover what he and others of his generation, the "greatest generation", endured.

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Summary: "The Greatest Spending Generation?" by RexCurry.net
Review: Very interesting book. Another fascinating aspect of the book is that it made Tom Brokaw, and the historian Rex Curry, the first journalists honored for exposing the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" to the public in Google News' search engine. Google News shows only Brokaw's and Curry's use of the full phrase in Google News archives. Google News selects from 4,500 news sources updated continuously.

A google news search for the full phrase revealed only six uses, five belonging to Curry and one belonging to Brokaw. Brokaw's use was actually posted as a book review at MSNBC and was not actually a "news" item. All of the other uses were by Curry writing about the topic of public and media ignorance of the full phrase, including Curry's history-making story that the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance was the origin of the salute of the horrid National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis).

Other news journalists can still join Brokaw and Curry as the first journalists to educate the public about the full phrase in the news media. News journalists can take third place, or make the top ten.

Here's the excerpt that did it for Brokaw: "In Germany, a former painter with a spellbinding oratorical style took office as chancellor and immediately set out to seize control of the political machinery of Germany with his National Socialist German Workers party, known informally as the Nazis. Adolf Hitler began his long march to infamy."

In comparison to the above, Google News indicates that the hackneyed shorthand "Nazi" has 9320 results from various news writers who all failed to ever mention the actual name of the monstrous Party.

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Summary: Should be required reading for Baby-Boomers and offspring
Review: Rarely has a book been able to capture the essence of a generation like "The Greatest Generation". Being the son of a WWII veteran and the nephew of a Silver Star recipient,I can attest to the fortitude and quiet courage these people displayed. Mr.Brokaw conveys his message in a strong but subdued manner without overdramafication. It seems as if he is well aware that the stories these brave people have to tell are dramatic and suspenseful enough without having to resort to the sensationalism that is so prevelant in todays' journalistic writings. I especially liked the way Mr.Brokaw intertwined regular everyday Americans with those of some notoriety and fame. In closing, I found this to be a very powerful book and came away with a renewed sense of respect and awe for the generation that had to go from the Great Depression almost immediately into a world war.

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Summary: Did not live upto my expectations.
Review: Long ago I learned that disappointment is often related to expectations. So it was withTom Brokaw's book,The Greatest Generation.There was never a problem in putting the book down in as much as "The Book" is a series of news bites each lasting from 30seconds to 5 minutes, with little depth,as most news bites are.I have no doubt that Mr. Brokaw was emotionaly moved when he went abroad to the 40th anniversary of WWII D-Day in 1984. His well meaning tribute to the vetrans of WWII,chronical a number of men and women with whom he had contact over some 15 years as a news analyst. Each vignette describes their war record,how they dealt with the immediate post war period and their accomplishments afterward. The men and women frequently attribute their success to self reliance and leadership skills they learned in the service.Societal changes related to Blacks and Women are woven through his "portraits".The WWII vetrans later in life were certainly the generation that helped foster the changes and deserve credit. In general the book does begin to raise one's consciousness and honors the men and women who served in WWII.