The Greatest Generation

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Summary: Tom Brokaw's convenient patriotism...
Review: AP story below:

Brokaw Backs American Flag Ban

"NBC Nightly News" anchorman Tom Brokaw, who's made a bundle off patriotic Americans who flocked to buy his World War II book, "The Greatest Generation," said Monday that he doesn't like it when journalists wear American flag pins and ribbons on TV.

"I don't think a journalist ought to be wearing a flag, because it does seem to be, to me at least, a sign of solidarity toward whatever the government is doing, and that is not our role," he told Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.

According to Northwestern's school newspaper, Brokaw explained, "I'm a patriot, and I think being a patriot means [to] love your country but think you can always improve it. And part of my role as a journalist is to ask questions and to examine the issues that will lead to some improvement of the country."

Two weeks ago, Brokaw's NBC News colleague Tim Russert wore a flag pin during a widely seen interview with Vice President Dick Cheney. "I may be a journalist, but I'm an American first," Russert said afterwards.

Brokaw gave a thumbs-up to the flag ban when he was asked about reports that ABC News prohibits its on-air reporters from wearing flag paraphernalia, according to USA Today.

Rating:
Summary: Proudly add this to your library!
Review: Wonderful collection of stories about our WWII heros with nice commentary from the NBC newsman. Women and minorities are dutifully included, with the exception of the homosexual community. Tom's researchers could've dug a wee bit deeper. But all in all, it's a beautiful book with well-written, moving remembrances and photographs.

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Summary: Up Close and Personal with The Greatest Generation
Review: I am a veteran of The Big One. I served five-and-one-half years on active duty. Until I read Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, however, I was never particularly proud of my contribution to the war effort, and had no heroic tales to tell my children or my bar mates. In all that time, I never fired a shot in anger. As an Instructor Bombardier, I spent perhaps a thousand hours aloft in a B-24. I did not even leave the United States, except for a six-week aerial gunnery school in Laredo, Texas, during which I ventured into Mexico on a weekend pass. In addition, I faced embarrassment when bombardiers I had trained returned to Boise, Idaho's Gowen Field after their 25 missions over Germany and saw me still safely ensconced in the States.

Thanks to Brokaw, however, I have a new perspective on my service years. On my 85th birthday The Greatest Generation actually made me feel proud of serving my country in the Air Force, (known at the start of my military career as the Army Air Corps.) Brokaw's work is a non-fiction account of how my generation came of age during the Second World War, went on to build modern America, and give us the world we have today.

The book devotes separate chapters to accounts of individuals in actual combat situations, including one chapter about soon-to-be-President George Bush. There are also accounts of non-combatants and their contribution to the war effort. All of us were united by a common purpose and, Brokaw says, by common values: duty, honor, economy, courage, service, love of family and country and, above all, responsibility for oneself. Hollywood's recent 'Saving Private Ryan' and HBO's "Band of Brothers" graphically depicts those values. Who could not be proud, given that perspective? So we non-combatants can be proud of, not embarrassed about, our roles in those parlous times. As the poet John Milton said centuries ago, they also serve who only stand and wait.

Scores of reviews of The Greatest Generation have been written by persons not of the greatest generation but so many of these are negative reviews. How dare they!!!

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Summary: A Greater Generation
Review: The Greatest Generation Tom Brokaw
ISBN 0-385-33462-1
2001
Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation" is a collection of short biographies of people who were young adults at the outbreak of World War II. Some of the people that Brokaw writes about are well known, such as George Bush, Andy Rooney, Bob Dole, Art Buchwald, Daniel Inouye, and Julia Childs. Others are ordinary folks.

Brokaw began to hear the stories that went into this book when he went to France to do a television program on the fiftieth anniversary of D-day in 1984. The stories reminded him of his boyhood experiences on a South Dakota army post during the war. Writing this book was something of a sentimental experience for Mr. Brokaw. One is charmed by incidents such as the time when the young Brokaw needed a lawnmower to make money, and his father built him one from salvaged parts, including ones from an old washing machine.

Brokaw observes in these stories that most Americans of that time were from rural backgrounds, extremely self-reliant, and largely honorable people, who tried to do what they saw as the right thing. They had grown up during the depression with little, and they expected little. When called upon to make sacrifices during the war they did so at an enormous cost to themselves and their families, and they did so in a remarkably selfless manner. The values that these people held are not widely-held values today, and thus it is interesting to look back at these men and women, in a book such as this, to understand who they were and how they came to be.

As an example of self-reliance, Brokaw writes about a man who grew up in the poverty of the dust bowl and got a job at Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas. At the plant men worked twelve to fourteen hours a day, but the farm boys they hired were accustomed to long hours. On the farm, he had taken tractors apart and put them back together and gotten up at 4:00 in the morning to milk the cows. In the aircraft factory, when desired materials could not be found, he and the other toolmakers improvised by making tools out of Masonite or Maplewood. They had an instinct for creativity and inventiveness.

Women pitched in during the war and contributed in new ways. A woman from Indiana was one of the 25,000 who volunteered for the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS). She too was raised on a farm. She started taking flying lessons in 1940, and got a license just in time to join the war effort. She spent six months of training in various airplanes in Sweetwater, Texas. In Wilmington, Delaware, she was assigned to testing and transporting planes used to train men as combat pilots. Other women towed targets for anti-aircraft and airborne target practice. Sometimes they returned home with
bullet holes in their planes.

There was a great sense of community in the United State during the war years. In the Kerry Corner neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, many in the Irish, working-class neighborhood signed up for the armed forces. Someone put up a banner with a star for every young man who had enlisted or was drafted. Mothers and fathers gathered on the square to get together Christmas packages for the boys.

Although I found this book to be worthwhile reading, I also found a few shortcomings. First, the selection of stories is tipped too much in favor of the well known. One suspects that these are people that Brokaw has met as a person of influence, rather than individuals who represent the greater masses.

Second, Tom Brokaw is a professional reporter, but not a professional writer. I did not feel that he added much insight beyond telling the stories of some of the men and women who served in the war, somewhat the way Studs Terkel did by transcribing the interviews for his book, "Working".

Last, the notion of the title, "The Greatest Generation" is an exaggeration that serves no good purpose. One wonders what other generations were researched and considered for this particular honor. Clearly, the answer is likely none. Perhaps, "A Greater Generation" would have been a better and more accurate description of what Mr. Brokaw wrote about. On the whole though, Brokaw's book does give appropriate attention to a generation that one may find more admirable than some that have followed. His achievement is in reminding us of the days when most Americans were less affluent, less materialistic, and less self-serving.

Rating:
Summary: Easy Read
Review: Entertaining book overall but was a little "hokie" in some parts. The author chose an interesting format by compiling a collection of individual stories about World War II. All the stories share a common theme of sacrifice, courage and duty. A very fast and easy read. Students of World War II will especially enjoy this work. RECOMMENDED.

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Summary: The audio version has even more use than the book!
Review: When we bought this for my wife's grandfather, we knew he would enjoy it. Teachers trying to convey the efforts of those who came of age in the late 30s-40s such as myself are very lucky Mr. Brokaw not only did the book, but also read it. Stories are presented in short pieces about individuals and what they experienced, which can be used as separate items or as a good read of a great book. The fact that Brokaw himself read the material is also helpful, since his presentation and tone are very relaxing and interesting to hear. His interest in his topic is sincere and shows, giving this book a great deal of respect for those it wishes to portray. I have bought more copies for others ince then, and use this book and its sequels in class very successfully. This will be an audiobook you will listen to several times, and appreciate each time you do.

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Summary: Good but not perfect!
Review: This book is a valiant attempt to cover a fairly broad theme. While the overall product is certainly worth the commitment of time, be warned that it often fails to maintain its continuity and I sometimes found Mr. Brokaw's style a little too much to take. As an earlier reviewer noted this book, and the related products,appear to be Brokaw's attempt to find a platform from which to launch a future political career, ( plenty of voters left from the "greatest Generation") The book's style is to provide a variety of personal stories, tethered together with Brokaw's prose. There is a lot of strong material but there were also a lot redundant, and frankly irrelevant pieces. Nonetheless there is still a lot in this book. This was a vital period in this country's growth and Brokaw has done a decent job in trying to give us all a sense of what life was like in America during that time. This is definitely one I will encourage my 15 year old daughter to read..

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Summary: Is this man running for office?
Review: Rarely have I been so put-off by a book. I take nothing away from the experience and hardhships of the generation of Americans who suffered the depression and WWII. That surely is a 5-Star story and my parents lived it. But this book is not that story. Instead I find cliche's and stereotypes. For sure, the last 50 years of American history has been one of accomplishment and success. But it is easy to forget that this was largely because the rest of the industrial world was in rubble after the War, and America had a special opportunity to excel and grow. - - I feel alarm bells when any group of people are described as special or superior. This type of thinking has resulted in too much suffering in our world. I suspect the reality is that Brokaw is laying the groundwork for a political career. Is 'The Greatest Generation' the modern 'Profiles in Courage?.'

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Summary: Revealing...
Review: A revealing book...It's a haunting tale of lives of the young back in a time of war, where 17 year olds went to fight in a global war and the aftermath and traumatic effects from that world war. You never really realize what war can do to someone.

You never see the impact it's made on a generation of young men and women who had to grow up fast and rallied together. It's because of these brave soldiers defending an idea and people from the sickening visions of a mad world. It is because of them, we live in free world.

When you think about, really think about it, I get chill that races down my spine. Could I have gone through with it? I don't know. It's pretty incredible that that generation was able to stand and say yes to something they really didn't understand. So many stories of ordinary people who became extraordinary through their courage and love and sacrifices. From the first women to break the homemaker mold-women who were in the factories helping the war cause, minorities suffering countless abuse to vigorously fight for their country, infantrymen who went on to become some of the most exceptional leaders in the world, small-town kids who became corporate moguls. From the confessions of George Bush and Julia Child to the astonishing heroism and moving love stories of everyday people, The Greatest Generation proudly honors those whose sacrifices changed the course of American history.

After reading this novel, I can't see the veterans or WWII as the same; I see all the different angles. His is a style of an experienced orator putting his words with pen on paper. As I was reading the selected stories about WWII and the courage that was displayed, it gives me shivers down my back to be reading the lives of soldiers who defended not only America but sanctity of freedom everywhere for everyone. It's touching, it's moving, it's a great read.

Although it is a good book and I loved reading it, it's bit one-sided and needed to be expanded on a little more. It left me wondering the point of the stories as a whole to the big picture of the book, if that makes sense. In all, it was something different and I got caught up in it at the right time. Even if you don't care for history or only have a mild interest, give this book a chance. Let it speak to you.

Rating:
Summary: BROKAW DROPS A BOMB
Review: Colorless, poorly written collection of interviews with WWII vets held together by shaky thesis.

The title refers of course to the Americans who fought WWII and prospered in post-war America. While taking nothing away from accomplishments, why are they the "greatest generation?" No generation of Americans has ever failed to answer the call to arms and perform in less than spectacular fashion. Are the Americans who fought the Germans and Japanese somehow superior to those who fought in WWI or Vietnam, or the Civil War? Did it take more courage to parachute into France than Vietnam?

Let's not forget that the WWII generation also returned home at a time of unprecedented growth and oppurtunity. Not so for vets of other wars, especially vets of WWI and Vietnam.

I suggest that anyone interested in books of this type try "Citizen Soldiers," or "D-day," by Stephen Ambrose, or any one of the scores of far superior books offering accounts of WWII vets.