The Greatest Generation

Description for THE GREATEST GENERATION by Tom Brokaw:

"In the spring of 1984, I went to the northwest of France, to Normandy, to prepare an NBC documentary on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, the massive & daring Allied invasion of Europe that marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler's 3rd 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 60s & 70s, & listened to their stories, I was deeply moved & profoundly grateful for all they had done. Ten years later, I returned to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of the invasion, & 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 book, Tom Brokaw goes out into America, to tell thru the stories of individuals the story of a generation, citizen heroes who came of age during the Great Depression & the WWII & went on to build modern America. This generation was united not only by common purpose, but also by common values: duty, honor, economy, courage, service, family, love of country, &, above all, responsibility. You will meet people whose everyday lives reveal how a generation persevered thru war, were trained by it, & went on to create useful lives & the America we have today. You'll meet people like Charles Van Gorder, who set up a medical facility in the middle of DDay & then came home to create a 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. 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 1st black women to serve in the newly formed WACs. You'll meet the members of the Romeo Club (Retired Old Men Eating Out), friends for life. Thru such stories you'll relive with ordinary persons, military heroes, famous people of great achievement & community leaders how these extraordinary times forged the values & provided the training that made a nation great.