Rating: 
Summary: Good format, good writing, but it got old...
Review: I'm a teenage girl, but I've always been interested in history. I feel that The Greatest Generation is appropriately titled - I've always had a strong admiration for the WW2 generation, which includes both sets of my grandparents. I was actually looking forward to reading this book, and I knew I was going to have to stay involved, with 400+ pages to read.What I found was a good, easy to read format, with a strong, straightforward narrative. Brokaw takes the facts from each person's lives and, for the most part, manages to craft a story worth reading. At times, I was eagerly devouring the pages; but at others, it was so dreary that I just plain skipped it. And by page 300, I was really wondering if I wanted to finish it. I did, however, and I'm glad; Brokaw paints a warm, beautiful picture of America from the 1940s through today, with a strong emphasis on the baby boom. Sometimes he gets bogged down in the facts, as any reporter-turned-writer might, and that's what takes this down to a 4-star book. That's also why I had a hard time reading parts of it. However, anyone who experienced this period in history will certainly enjoy The Greatest Generation. Bottom Line: Reccommended - especially for those who wish to learn more about the 'personal' side of WW2. For anyone over 65, this is a must read. Brokaw's book gives us a valuable archive which will be doubly appreciated 100 years from now.
Rating: 
Summary: Please look at the facts
Review: Brokaw's "greatest generation" thesis is dubious and presumptuous. Some facts: In the years leading up to WWII, the US was fiecely isolationist. The "greatest generation" was not interseted in defeating fascism/nazism/totalitarianism until Pearl Harbor-- despite the fact that the war had been raging for more than 2 years in Europe. (There is mounting evidence that FDR orchestrated the Pearl Harbor debacle in order to rally a disinterested and apathetic public to the cause of war. FDR's next step was to violate the civil rights of Japanese-American citizens, intern them in "relocation" camps, and then have the arrogance to draft them into the war!) Whether we want to admit it or not, US military involvment in Europe was essentially a mopping up of a crumbling alliance of Fascist/Nazi troops whose best and brightest had perished at the hands of the relentless Soviet juggernaut. While US troops had to deal with Hitler's last offensive in the Battle of the Bulge, they were spared the mega-blitzkrieg assaults of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk (the largest tank battle in history), in which the Soviets stood up to Hitler single handed, and defeated the dictator to win back their country (Soviet casualties in WWII are estimated to be 20 MILLION). One of the primary reasons that US-Soviet relations turned cold after the war was Stalin's justified belief that the US dragged its feet in opening a second front. The next gesture of arrogance and cruelty of this "greatest generation" was the decision to drop not one but two atomic bombs on mainland Japan, ostensibly to end the war, but in reality to demonstrate our military superiority to the Soviets-- a rather macabre and cynical gesture to our then-ally. Following the war, the "greatest generation" came back home and raised a "lesser" generation of kids who recognized the hypocrisy and shallowness of their parents' attitudes (racism, conformity, hyper-patriotism) and deeds (McCarthyism, Korea, Vietnam, and ultimately Watergate). Some more facts: I am neither Democrat nor Republican. I have sincere respect and admiration for the US soldiers who sacrificed in ALL wars, not just WWII. Those who fought in WWII deserve praise. However, ALL generations of Americans have contributed to the fabric of the United States and deserve praise as well. Why do we need to define who was "the greatest"?
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but left me wanting a little more depth
Review: Brokaw supports his thesis that the WWII generation was the greatest, by providing a great many mini-biographies. Taken as a whole it is an impressive set of accomplishments and stories and gives insight into the values and motivations for what this generation the "greatest". But I found myself wanting more than just a few pages on each of these folks.
Rating:
Summary: luke warm
Review: book is luke warm of some small interest
Rating: 
Summary: A Greatly Overdue Tribute
Review: This is the book about the generation that went through the great depression and WWII, which for most of us is our parents and grandparents. This generation has gone too long underappreciated as useless old farts by the Boomers, Xers and the latest generation. We forget that they built modern America thorugh their sacrifices and just plain old determination. While one might quibble with Brokaw's claim of this generation being the greatest (how about the revolutionary war and civil war gens), they are unquestionably the greatest alive today. Brokaw chronicles in easy-to-read vivid vignettes the lives of an assortment of WWII vets from all walks of life. While one might yearn for a bit more detail on the transition from wartime sacrifice to peacetime production, its still a must read for putting the accomplishments of this great generation into perspective.
Rating: 
Summary: A poor tribute.
Review: I had hoped for a well-written and well-researched book about my parents' generation, and was disappointed that this book is neither. It appears to have been written by committee, as if a classroom of young journalism students (hmmm) were asked to write a 3-5 page essay about their parents' or grandparents' trials and tribulations in the Great Depression or in WWII. Were these stories then roughly stitched together by someones staff (hmmm) and sent on to a willing publisher who felt the name & face recognition of a network anchorman would sell almost anything (hmmm)......, voila, you would have a book! But it wouldn't be a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books of the 20'th Century
Review: Filled with humorous, sad, and inspirational stories about the people who came of age in the 30's and 40's and who are slowly fading away now into our memories. This book should be a must read in every high school government class.
Rating:
Summary: Well meant, not well written
Review: As a World War Two buff, I was looking forward to this book. A strong case can be made that the men and women who grew up during the Depression and fought or helped with the war effort during World War 11 are The Greatest Generation in American History. The same point could be made for the European, Russian and Asian young adults of that era who not only fought in the war, but had to suffer the unimaginable horrors of invasion and occupation. So, the premise of the book is a good idea and I have no doubt about Tom Brokaw's sincerity in writing it (with the help of a team of researchers.) Good intentions don't yield good research, good thinking and good writing, however. The book lacks substance, and depth. Be prepared to wade through chapter after chapter of Readers Digest-like writing that gushes with sappy salutes and honey-dipped hyperbole. This isn't meant to at all demean the courage or accomplishments of the men and women who are the subjects of "The Greatest Generation." It's just that the book would have been much better had more effort been put into the depth and detail of their stories, and less effort into Flag-waving rhetoric.
Rating:
Summary: Thank You
Review: I was born in 1958, and have two uncles in "The Greatest Generation". They are both deceased now, but served in WWII, one in the Pacific, and one in Europe. I never talked to them about that time, but this book helped me to understand it much better. I have asked my mother to share with me what she remembers as a young teenager at that time. I listened to the book on tape, and was filled with emotion and pride for them, so much so that I stopped my car at the nearest pay phone to call my mother, long distance, and ask her about it. The most important point I think Tom Brokaw makes, is that these people thrived on responsibility, the more the better. This is what is missing in society today. Thank you Tom.
Rating:
Summary: self-congratulation ad nauseum
Review: This unimaginably hyperbolic sack of tripe has as its premise the single most asinine argument ever made by a network anchor, which is no small feat. It is sort of the literary equivalent of Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph of the Will. Let me make it clear that I yield to noone in my admiration for the men who fought in WWII. Anyone who fights honorably in his nation's service is deserving of our respect and our thanks. But here are a few of the questions that are necessarily raised by Mr. Brokaw's treacly hyperbole: *The first generation of Americans settled and subdued an unknown land. The Revolutionary generation created the nation and defeated the world's greatest empire. The Civil War generation saved the Union and freed the slaves. Brokaw's subjects won a war in Northern Africa, France, Italy and the South Pacific. By what stretch of the imagination was their battle vital to the nation's existence? *If there really was a horrible darkness falling on Europe and this generation fought it out of a sense of duty, why did they stay out of the fight for a full two years, until the Japanese attacked us? *Why did they declare war only on Japan at that point, waiting until Hitler declared war on us to return the favor? *Is there any reason to believe that there has ever been a generation of Americans who would have reacted differently to the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Wouldn't every generation of Americans have eagerly sallied forth to crush Nippon? Succeeding generations fought to free South Korea, South Vietnam and Kuwait; does Brokaw really wish to suggest that they would not have fought Tojo? *Is it appropriate to consider this generation the nation's greatest considering the fact that the Armed Forces were segregated and that we interred our own American Japanese population during the war? *How difficult a task was it to win WWII? With Japan failing miserably in its desperate gamble at Pearl Harbor and the German offensive grinding to a halt in Russia, was there any way that we could have failed to win the war or wasn't this merely a mopping up operation, however costly? *Having freed half of Europe, why did this generation abandon the Eastern half of the continent to the ministrations of Stalin and the USSR? Do the dead of the gulag really feel comforted by the fact that America allowed them to be murdered by Stalin and not Hitler? *Did this generation's responsibilities cease on V-J Day? Besides the question of the Soviet Union, where was this generation during the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, etc? Were they responsible for these failures or merely unsupportive of our soldiers during them? *Do the difficulties of the Depression and service in WWII really justify the massive transfer of payments that this generation has secured to themselves from future generations? Social Security, Medicare, etc. are justly called entitlements; why is this generation the one in our history that felt entitled to so much in exchange for their service to the nation? *Do they bear no responsibility for the enormous deficits that were rung up throughout their lifetimes, in order to pay for the thorough Social Safety Net they demanded? Deficits, mind you, which our generation will be the one to pay off over the next twenty or thirty years. *Who is responsible for the tremendous cultural damage that their Baby Boom children have done and are doing to this country? Wasn't it this "Greatest Generation" that raised the most spoiled, selfish, over indulged crop of brats ever to walk the face of the Earth? Now Brokaw does treat many of these subjects--including interviews with Japanese Americans and blacks--but does not even consider others and its obviously impossible to answer or justify most of them. In the end, what we're left with are some interesting oral histories, like the reminiscences of George Bush and Julia Child, that add fairly little to the prior work of folks like Studs Terkel (The Good War : An Oral History of World War Two & Hard Times : An Oral History of the Great Depression), unified by a thesis that is completely risible. GRADE: D+
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