Download or read book The Greatest Generation written by Tom Brokaw and published by Random House. This book was released on 2000-02-23 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant classic that changed the way we saw World War II and an entire generation of Americans, from the beloved journalist whose own iconic career has lasted more than fifty years. In this magnificent testament to a nation and her people, Tom Brokaw brings to life the extraordinary stories of a generation that gave new meaning to courage, sacrifice, and honor. From military heroes to community leaders to ordinary citizens, he profiles men and women who served their country with valor, then came home and transformed it: Senator Daniel Inouye, decorated at the front, fighting prejudice at home; Martha Settle Putney, one of the first black women to serve in the newly formed WACs; Charles Van Gorder, a doctor who set up a MASH-like medical facility in the middle of battle, then opened a small clinic in his hometown; Navy pilot and future president George H. W. Bush, assigned to read the mail of the enlisted men under him, who says that in doing so he “learned about life”; and many other laudable Americans. To this generation that gave so much and asked so little, Brokaw offers eloquent tribute in true stories of everyday heroes in extraordinary times. Praise for The Greatest Generation “Moving . . . a tribute to the members of the World War II generation to whom we Americans and the world owe so much.”—The New York Times Book Review “Full of wonderful, wrenching tales of a generation of heroes. Tom Brokaw reminds us what we are capable of as a people. An inspiring read for those who wish their spirits lifted.”—Colin L. Powell “Offers welcome inspiration . . . It is impossible to read even a few of these accounts and not be touched by the book’s overarching message: We who followed this generation have lived in the midst of greatness.”—The Washington Times “Entirely compelling.”—The Wall Street Journal

Download or read book The Greatest Generation Speaks written by Tom Brokaw and published by Random House. This book was released on 2000-03-08 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A heartwarming gift for the holidays—a powerful selection of the letters Tom Brokaw received in response to his towering #1 bestseller The Greatest Generation. “When I wrote about the men and women who came out of the Depression, who won great victories and made lasting sacrifices in World War II and then returned home to begin building the world we have today—the people I called the Greatest Generation—it was my way of saying thank you. But I was not prepared for the avalanche of letters and responses touched off by that book. I had written a book about America, and now America was writing back.”—Tom Brokaw In the phenomenal bestseller The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw paid affecting tribute to those who gave the world so much—and who left an enduring legacy of courage and conviction. The Greatest Generation Speaks collects the vast outpouring of letters Brokaw received from men and women eager to share their intensely personal stories of a momentous time in America’s history. Some letters tell of the front during the war, others recall loved ones in harm’s way in distant places. They offer first-hand accounts of battles, poignant reflections on loneliness, exuberant expressions of love, and somber feelings of loss. As Brokaw notes, “If we are to heed the past to prepare for the future, we should listen to these quiet voices of a generation that speaks to us of duty and honor, sacrifice and accomplishment. I hope more of their stories will be preserved and cherished as reminders of all that we owe them and all that we can learn from them.”

Download or read book Letters from the Greatest Generation written by Howard H. Peckham and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of personal letters from overseas that reveal in day-to-day detail what it was like to serve in World War II. Recounting victory and defeat, love and loss, this is a remarkable and frank collection of World War II letters penned by American men and women serving overseas. Here, the hopes and dreams of the greatest generation fill each page, and their voices ring loud and clear. “It’s all part of the game but it’s bloody and rough,” writes one soldier to his wife. “Wearing two stripes now and as proud as an old cat with five kittens,” remarks another. Yet, as many countries rejoiced on V-E Day, this book reveals that soldiers were “too tired and sad to celebrate.” Filled with the everyday thoughts of these fighters, the letters are by turns heartbreaking and amusing, revealing and frightening. While visiting a German concentration camp, one man wrote, “I don’t like Army life but I’m glad we are here to stop these atrocities.” Meanwhile, in another letter a soldier quips, “I know lice don’t crawl so I figured they were fleas.” A fitting tribute to all veterans, this book brings the experience of war—its dramatic horrors, its dreary hardships, its desperate hope for a better future—to vivid life. “An intimate portrait of the mundane and remarkable, of heroism and terror, of friendship and loss . . . Timely, compelling, and important reading.”—Matthew L. Basso, author of Men at Work

Download or read book A Piece of the Greatest Generation written by Harrison C. Scranton and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2024-03-07 with total page 771 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harrison Charles Scranton was a Connecticut native that at age 16 with his family moved to Southern California. His interest in flying provided the original motivation for writing this book as described in the first page. Read his various exploits during his time in the Service. Find out what it was like being in the Army Air Forces in the early days. See how changing from the Army Air Forces to it's own branch of service the United States Air Force changed the mission and responsibilities. Find out how the average "joe" used to behave during this time frame. Laugh and cry at the many stories that are told about his everyday activities. Be with him as he was swept up in the events of December 7, 1941. Find out how he managed to get along with his new assignment in the Northeast Air Command, with time spent at Thule, Greenland. Find out what it was like to plan for your retirement and the many hurtles that had to be jumped for that to occur. Last but not least, be with him at his retirement parade that an Officer in the USAF receives if requested. This is a true account of a service man's experience in the Service of his country for 30 years. Robert (Bob) Scranton son of Harrison Charles Scranton

Download or read book Myth and the Greatest Generation written by Kenneth Rose and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myth and the Greatest Generation calls into question the glowing paradigm of the World War II generation set up by such books as The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. Including analysis of news reports, memoirs, novels, films and other cultural artefacts Ken Rose shows the war was much more disruptive to the lives of Americans in the military and on the home front during World War II than is generally acknowledged. Issues of racial, labor unrest, juvenile delinquency, and marital infidelity were rampant, and the black market flourished. This book delves into both personal and national issues, calling into questions the dominant view of World War II as ‘The Good War’.

Download or read book In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation written by Melinda L. Pash and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2012-11-11 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Largely overshadowed by World War II’s “greatest generation” and the more vocal veterans of the Vietnam era, Korean War veterans remain relatively invisible in the narratives of both war and its aftermath. Yet, just as the beaches of Normandy and the jungles of Vietnam worked profound changes on conflict participants, the Korean Peninsula chipped away at the beliefs, physical and mental well-being, and fortitude of Americans completing wartime tours of duty there. Upon returning home, Korean War veterans struggled with home front attitudes toward the war, faced employment and family dilemmas, and wrestled with readjustment. Not unlike other wars, Korea proved a formative and defining influence on the men and women stationed in theater, on their loved ones, and in some measure on American culture. In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation not only gives voice to those Americans who served in the “forgotten war” but chronicles the larger personal and collective consequences of waging war the American way.

Download or read book The Lucky Few written by Elwood Carlson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-06-19 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born during the Great Depression and World War Two (1929–1945) an entire generation has slipped between the cracks of history. These Lucky Few became the first American generation smaller than the one before them, and the luckiest generation of Americans ever. As children they experienced the most stable intact parental families in the nation’s history. Lucky Few women married earlier than any other generation of the century and helped give birth to the Baby Boom, yet also gained in education compared to earlier generations. Lucky Few men made the greatest gains of the century in schooling, earned veterans benefits like the Greatest Generation but served mostly in peacetime with only a fraction of the casualties, came closest to full employment, and spearheaded the trend toward earlier retirement. Even in retirement/old age the Lucky Few remain in the right place at the right time. Here is their story, and the story of how they have affected other recent generations of Americans before and since.

Download or read book The Zinn Reader written by Howard Zinn and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No other radical historian has reached so many hearts and minds as Howard Zinn. It is rare that a historian of the Left has managed to retain as much credibility while refusing to let his academic mantle change his beautiful writing style from being anything but direct, forthright, and accessible. Whether his subject is war, race, politics, economic justice, or history itself, each of his works serves as a reminder that to embrace one's subjectivity can mean embracing one's humanity, that heart and mind can speak with one voice. Here, in six sections, is the historian's own choice of his shorter essays on some of the most critical problems facing America throughout its history, and today.

Download or read book The Greater Generation written by Leonard Steinhorn and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greatest Generation gets credit for winning World War II and braving the Depression. But the Baby Boomers? All they get credit for is knowing how to order a tall skim double latte. What really is the true legacy of the Boomers? Summoning the amazing sea changes they've made in American culture, this controversial book recasts the much-maligned Boomers as a Greater Generation with a lasting legacy of tolerance and equality for all. Farewell, Donna Reed: "For women, the Baby Boom era has been one of breathtaking change—in a single generation American women have effected one of the greatest social metamorphoses in recorded history. What women are able to do today would have been unimaginable four or five decades ago, at best the stuff of utopian fantasy or science fiction." Not Only Women: "The egalitarian norms of the Baby Boom have deeply changed men and will continue to do so for generations to come." Diversity as a Moral Value: For too long, America denied blacks, gays, and other minorities their dignity and rights, but in the Boomer era we have enlarged the melting pot to include those once scorned and excluded. Boomers have led a culture war "to upend the rigid social structure of the Fifties and challenge centuries of entrenched norms and attitudes about race, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality." The Greening of America: Under Boomers, environmental protection has become a powerful new norm in American society. No longer do we tolerate toxic run-offs and progress at any cost. A Freer, More Open Society: Personal freedom, tolerance, openness, transparency, and equality—these are the values of the Baby Boom era, and we live them daily at home, work, school, and in our many relationships. The old ways—the prejudice, narrowmindedness, restrictive sex roles, smoke-filled rooms, double standards, rigid hierarchies—are going, going, gone thanks to Baby Boomers. The media have it wrong: You don't need to fight a war to be a great generation. America today is far more open, inclusive, and equal than at any time in our history, and Boomers are the foot soldiers who made it happen. The Greater Generation tells their remarkable story. "The Greater Generation is a timely, passionate defense of the Baby Boom generation. . . . Leonard Steinhorn reminds us of the essential liberal spirit that defined the Boomers and how they changed our country for the better. In doing so, he illuminates the critical issues that continue to challenge them and their children." —Joe Conason, bestselling author of Big Lies and The Hunting of the President "The Baby Boom generation changed the heart and soul of America. Leonard Steinhorn's The Greater Generation shows us how much better off we all are as a result." —Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class "Steinhorn has written a smart and inspirational book that will be a boost to all Boomers, and will show their children why Mom and Dad know best." —Iris Krasnow, author of Surrendering to Marriage "In contrast to their parents' idealized standing as the ‘greatest generation,' Boomers have been gamely diminished as the ‘worst generation.' And this book shouts ENOUGH!" —Brent Green, author of Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers

Download or read book A Generation of Sociopaths written by Bruce Cannon Gibney and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his "remarkable" (Men's Journal) and "controversial" (Fortune) book -- written in a "wry, amusing style" (The Guardian) -- Bruce Cannon Gibney shows how America was hijacked by the Boomers, a generation whose reckless self-indulgence degraded the foundations of American prosperity. In A Generation of Sociopaths, Gibney examines the disastrous policies of the most powerful generation in modern history, showing how the Boomers ruthlessly enriched themselves at the expense of future generations. Acting without empathy, prudence, or respect for facts--acting, in other words, as sociopaths--the Boomers turned American dynamism into stagnation, inequality, and bipartisan fiasco. The Boomers have set a time bomb for the 2030s, when damage to Social Security, public finances, and the environment will become catastrophic and possibly irreversible--and when, not coincidentally, Boomers will be dying off. Gibney argues that younger generations have a fleeting window to hold the Boomers accountable and begin restoring America.

Download or read book Boom written by Tom Brokaw and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2008-10-14 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Boom!, Tom Brokaw, one of America’s premier journalists and the acclaimed author of The Greatest Generation, gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America: the tumultuous Sixties. The voices and stories of both famous people and ordinary citizens come together in this “virtual reunion” as Brokaw takes us on a memorable journey through a remarkable time, exploring how individuals and the national mood were affected by a controversial era and showing how the aftershocks of the Sixties continue to resound in our lives today. In the reflections of a generation, Brokaw also discovers lessons that might guide us in the years ahead. Race, politics, war, feminism, popular culture, and music are all delved into here. Brokaw explores how members of this generation have gone on to bring activism and a Sixties mindset into individual entrepreneurship , as we hear stories of how this formative decade has shaped our perspectives on business, the environment, politics, family, and our national existence. Remarkable in its insights, wonderfully written and reported, this revealing book lets us join in these frank conversations about America then, now, and tomorrow. Praise for Boom! “Tom Brokaw does an excellent job of capturing an exciting, controversial period in American history and Boom! is a worthy addition to his growing canon.”–New York Post “[Tom Brokaw] approaches this magnum opus with warmth, curiosity and conviction, the same attributes that worked so well for his Greatest Generation.” –The New York Times “[A] verbal scrapbook of the Sixties . . . [Boom! shows] that the era’s core issues–racism, women’s rights, a nation-dividing war–remain central today, and that the values boomers championed haven’t yet gone bust.” –People (four stars) “Packed with memorable people, places, events . . . A ‘virtual reunion’ of 1960s folks telling what they did back then, where they’ve been since and how they assess that tumultuous decade.” –Chicago Tribune “Genuinely fascinating recollections . . . plenty of memorable anecdotes.” –The Wall Street Journal

Download or read book My Grandfather s War written by Jesse Cozean and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Captured in the Battle of the Bulge, Jesse Cozean’s grandfather spent 103 days as a prisoner of the German Army, losing sixty pounds and several friends to the bitter cold and starvation fare of a Nazi prison camp. After being liberated by the tanks of General Patton, he rejoined his wife, resumed his work as a carpenter, and raised a family without ever mentioning what he endured. Nearly fifty years later, Robert Cozean suddenly began talking about his wartime experiences; he would travel to ex-POW conventions, look through old books—and he found a receptive audience in his oldest grandson. As Jesse began interviewing him about his time as a POW, Robert underwent his second round of heart surgery in ten years. While recovering, he lived with Jesse, his “first sergeant,” as he called him,who oversaw his grandfather’s medical care. Along the way, their relationship changed from that of a kid and his Papa to two men seeing each other for the first time. Part war story, part biography, part memoir, and intensely moving throughout, My Grandfather’s War is a treasure for all generations.

Download or read book Millennials Rising written by Neil Howe and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-01-16 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the authors of the bestselling 13th Gen, an incisive, in-depth examination of the Millennials--the generation born after 1982. In this remarkable account, certain to stir the interest of educators, counselors, parents, and people in all types of business as well as young people themselves, Neil Howe and William Strauss provide the definitive analysis of a powerful generation: the Millennials. Having looked at oceans of data, taken their own polls, talked to hundreds of kids, parents, and teachers, and reflected on the rhythms of history, Howe and Strauss explain how Millennials have turned out to be so dramatically different from Xers and boomers. Millennials Rising provides a fascinating narrative of America's next great generation.

Download or read book The Dumbest Generation written by Mark Bauerlein and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-05-15 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This shocking, surprisingly entertaining romp into the intellectual nether regions of today's underthirty set reveals the disturbing and, ultimately, incontrovertible truth: cyberculture is turning us into a society of know-nothings. The Dumbest Generation is a dire report on the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its impact on American democracy and culture. For decades, concern has been brewing about the dumbed-down popular culture available to young people and the impact it has on their futures. But at the dawn of the digital age, many thought they saw an answer: the internet, email, blogs, and interactive and hyper-realistic video games promised to yield a generation of sharper, more aware, and intellectually sophisticated children. The terms “information superhighway” and “knowledge economy” entered the lexicon, and we assumed that teens would use their knowledge and understanding of technology to set themselves apart as the vanguards of this new digital era. That was the promise. But the enlightenment didn’t happen. The technology that was supposed to make young adults more aware, diversify their tastes, and improve their verbal skills has had the opposite effect. According to recent reports from the National Endowment for the Arts, most young people in the United States do not read literature, visit museums, or vote. They cannot explain basic scientific methods, recount basic American history, name their local political representatives, or locate Iraq or Israel on a map. The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future is a startling examination of the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its impact on American culture and democracy. Over the last few decades, how we view adolescence itself has changed, growing from a pitstop on the road to adulthood to its own space in society, wholly separate from adult life. This change in adolescent culture has gone hand in hand with an insidious infantilization of our culture at large; as adolescents continue to disengage from the adult world, they have built their own, acquiring more spending money, steering classrooms and culture towards their own needs and interests, and now using the technology once promoted as the greatest hope for their futures to indulge in diversions, from MySpace to multiplayer video games, 24/7. Can a nation continue to enjoy political and economic predominance if its citizens refuse to grow up? Drawing upon exhaustive research, personal anecdotes, and historical and social analysis, The Dumbest Generation presents a portrait of the young American mind at this critical juncture, and lays out a compelling vision of how we might address its deficiencies. The Dumbest Generation pulls no punches as it reveals the true cost of the digital age—and our last chance to fix it.

Download or read book The Golden Age written by Gore Vidal and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2001-09-18 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Golden Age is Vidal's crowning achievement, a vibrant tapestry of American political and cultural life from 1939 to 1954, when the epochal events of World War II and the Cold War transformed America, once and for all, for good or ill, from a republic into an empire. The sharp-eyed and sympathetic witnesses to these events are Caroline Sanford, Hollywood actress turned Washington D.C., newspaper publisher, and Peter Sanford, her nephew and publisher of the independent intellectual journal The American Idea. They experience at first hand the masterful maneuvers of Franklin Roosevelt to bring a reluctant nation into the Second World War, and, later, the actions of Harry Truman that commit the nation to a decade-long twilight struggle against Communism—developments they regard with a decided skepticism even though it ends in an American global empire. The locus of these events is Washington D.C., yet the Hollywood film industry and the cultural centers of New York also play significant parts. In addition to presidents, the actual characters who appear so vividly in the pages of The Golden Age include Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie, William Randolph Hearst, Dean Acheson, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Alsop, Dawn Powell—and Gore Vidal himself. The Golden Age offers up U.S. history as only Gore Vidal can, with unrivaled penetration, wit, and high drama, allied to a classical view of human fate. It is a supreme entertainment that is not only sure to be a major bestseller but that will also change listeners' understanding of American history and power.

Download or read book Arthur Murray s Popularity Book written by Arthur Murray and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1944, the Popularity Book is a vintage guidebook full of wise and wonderful advice on living well, building poise and maintaining good relationships. Drawing on books, testimonials and magazines from the World War II era, it shows the forthright common sense and charming romanticism of the “Greatest Generation”, a generation inspired by debonair role models such as Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. As relevant today as it was in the 1940s, the Popularity Book offers counsel on being an unforgettably great date, eliciting a marriage proposal, and how to be generally charming. Compiled and originally published by Arthur Murray, it also features his iconic step-by-step footprint instructions on how to Samba, Fox Trot and Rumba divinely!

Download or read book The Gifted Generation written by David Goldfield and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping and path-breaking history of the post–World War II decades, during which an activist federal government guided the country toward the first real flowering of the American Dream. In The Gifted Generation, historian David Goldfield examines the generation immediately after World War II and argues that the federal government was instrumental in the great economic, social, and environmental progress of the era. Following the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation, the returning vets and their children took the unprecedented economic growth and federal activism to new heights. This generation was led by presidents who believed in the commonwealth ideal: the belief that federal legislation, by encouraging individual opportunity, would result in the betterment of the entire nation. In the years after the war, these presidents created an outpouring of federal legislation that changed how and where people lived, their access to higher education, and their stewardship of the environment. They also spearheaded historic efforts to level the playing field for minorities, women and immigrants. But this dynamic did not last, and Goldfield shows how the shrinking of the federal government shut subsequent generations off from those gifts. David Goldfield brings this unprecedented surge in American legislative and cultural history to life as he explores the presidencies of Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon Baines Johnson. He brilliantly shows how the nation's leaders persevered to create the conditions for the most gifted generation in U.S. history.