The Greatest Generation
by Tom Brokaw

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Book Reviews of The Greatest Generation

Book Review: A Greater Generation
Summary: 4 Stars

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.

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