Book Review: The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
This week's recommended book is by a well-known American journalist and news broadcaster, Tom Brokaw. I just want to be up front that I have not read the book cover to cover. I have browsed the chapters for the different stories.
Tom Brokaw attended the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landing in Normandy and met some of those American men and women that had a part in that incredibly dangerous and courageous action. It started to occur to him that these were the people who were born in the 1920s and then had to go through grinding poverty of the Great Depression in the US in their childhood and teens. After the Depression they found themselves on the front lines facing the armies of maniacal and murderous dictators. The fate of the world was in the hands and hearts of these young people. There was no sense of heroism they were looking for, they just wanted to do their duties for their families and their country.
After the war they returned home to another daunting task: to rebuild and reconstruct a nation that had been through the trauma of war. Again, it was just a matter for them to continue a responsible and diligent work ethic to do their utmost as private citizens. Hard work, faithfulness to families and watching out for your fellow man had already been ingrained in them through the fires of the Great Depression and WW2. These characteristics built an American economy which became the foundation of the prosperity much of the Western world enjoys today. Rather than agitating for revenge and bitterness they took part in the rebuilding of Western Germany and Japan, their former enemies under whom many had lost friends, loved ones and careers to. Who ever heard of a conquering nation not colonizing their defeated enemies but rebuilding them so they could have a prosperous and independent future. These are all new ideas to the human story.
The book was first published in 1998 just after the Iron Curtain fell. It was George H.W. Bush, a member of that greatest generation, who as president stood before the American people and announced that "by the grace of God we have won the Cold War." As a pilot in the Pacific, he had been shot down in 1944 and both of his fellow crew members were killed. He was able to successfully bail out and was rescued by a US submarine. Other fellow aviators had also been shot down and killed with their livers being cannibalized upon capture. After surviving such a close call, he started to ask, "Why had I been spared and what did God have for me?" Brokaw had a deep and persuading conviction that the America that was in 1998 was shaped because of that Greatest Generation.
His firsthand testimonies from the rich and poor from all walks of life are inspiring. He looks at "Women in Uniform," and how despite women not being allowed to fight they worked to support the military and eventually created pathways for women in uniform. The chapter on love, marriage and commitment gives insight on family units that endured Depression, war and rebuilding from nothing.
The book was published 26-years ago and how our world has changed. I'm pondering if we have squandered what was won for us by the Greatest Generation. Maybe this book can be an inspiring model for us who are now facing culture wars, cancel culture, and moral decay in our generation. Highly recommended.
Dan Slade
