Rating: 
Summary: A Shocking Omission
Review: During WWII, the Serbian allies of Gen. Mihailovich's Chetniks rescued over 500 American airmen downed over occupied Yugoslavia, the single largest rescue of American troops from behind enemy lines in our nation's history. Gen. Mihailovich received the Legion of Merit Award for this rescue. The award was recommended by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and approved by an Act of Congress on July 20, 1942, (sec. III, Bul. 40 WD, 1942) and Executive Order 9260, 29 October, 1942 (sec. I, Bul. 54, WD, 1942). It was presented posthumously to Mihailovich by President Harry S. Truman on March 29, 1948. The State Department kept that award secret for over 20 years and to this very day they still maintain possession of the medal refusing to pass it on to Mihailovich's heirs. Hundreds of Serbs lost their lives to save these American troops, one of those downed airmen was Maj. Richard L. Felman, a Jew from Tucson Arizona who told this writer, "How can we expect the government to level with the American"~ people about the MIAs in Vietnam when they are still covering up the truth about the MIAs in WWII?" Serbs the recognition they deserve. Hundreds of Serbs gave their lives saving these American airmen. Major. Felmen told me of his own rescue in which an entire village of some 200 Serbian women and children were killed because they refused to reveal his hiding place with Mihailovic's Chetnik forces. He watched with binoculars from the opposite hill as German troops slaughtered these Serbian victims. He begged Mihailovich to give him up to the Germans but Mihailovich refused saying, "You are too"~ important to the forces of peace and freedom.""~ It is quite clear that he believes the name "Serb" is synonymous with the word "Jap" in WWII. What an ugly testament to those who fought and died for freedom.
Rating: 
Summary: Great expectations unfulfilled
Review: My father served in Europe during WW II. Like many other G. I.'s he returned home with a foreign-born wife. It was very disappointing that there was no mention of soldiers and their war brides in this book. The individual stories are good as far as they go, but Brokaw trivializes them with the same flowery comments repeated again and again. Some celebrity stories such as Art Buchwald's were very entertaining, but other celebrity names were mentioned without an account of the individual's experiences. Would you call that name dropping? I agree with all the other reviewers who liked the stories but found them pooly written.
Rating:
Summary: America's disturbing ignorance
Review: I am quite disturbed by the absolute ignorance of the american reviewers of this book. They honestly believe America was solely responsible for the allies winning of the war. This book is extremely complacent, and with its remarkable bias, does not qualify as history. As the last reviewer said, American's obviously think they are better than everybody else. That was the reason why Germany started the war in the first place.
Rating: 
Summary: A good primer for the generations who followed
Review: The Greatest Generation doesn't recreate the overwhelming experience of WWII as well as War of the Rats or The Triumph & the Glory, or other recent best-selling novels set during WWII, but it is pretty good at what it does--which is recounting in a straight forward fashion some of what that generation endured to win a war that had to be won.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully told...maybe too beautifully.
Review: Although less journalistic and more tributary in nature, this book hearkens back to a time that people of my generation still yearn for; a diffuse monochrome tapestry of what was once an ideal and simpler time. Or was it? Certainly there was greater emphasis placed on drawing distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil; but it seems that my memory, not unlike this book, perhaps, suffers a bit from reflective glossing. It's unlikely that any soldier sprawled out face-first on a French beachhead was reminiscing fondly about how good his life had been to that point. But certainly the demarcation lines were more clearly illustrated...Hitler was a malevolent sociopath and Churchill, a divine leader. I just wished this book had fleshed-out more of those gray areas. In fact, I recently had the opportunity to read a story about our most contemporary conflict, the war on drugs. A war, I might add, that is being fought not in the Jungles of Colombia or in the streets of LA, but rather, it is being fought in the hallowed corridors of Corporate America. Unlike "The Greatest Generation," this book seems to capture the multiple hues of gray that speckle the American canvas. The book, "Inside Job: Deep Undercover as a Corporate Spy," was one of the most engrossing and moving stories it has been my displeasure to read. That's right, the zeitgeist of this tortuous tale of ambiguous ethics and diffuse corporate operations is such that it captures best what is so different about society today versus fifty years ago. Read both of these books back-to-back and you will see what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad.....but I expected better
Review: Overall, I enjoyed this book, however, I felt that the greatest generation was given short shrift by Brokaw's concentration on war experiences. This is my parents' generation and it has always been apparent to me that their greatest strengths (and weaknesses) were forged in both the Depression and in World War II. Yet the significance could have been better shown in their many accomplishments (and failings)in shaping post-WWII America. Maybe an opportunity for a REAL sequel here (the follow-up book, Greatest Generation Speaks, is just a recycling of material not used in this book.
Rating:
Summary: A book with great potential left unfulfilled
Review: I found this book to be disappointing. I agree with Tom Brokaw's premise that the World War II generation may be the greatest in American history, and for the reasons he cites. It is a pity that he doesn't follow through with a book that really proves his argument. What Brokaw gives the reader is a series of brief, fluffy profiles of the lives of World War II veterans from many walks of life. These stories are interesting as far as they go; unfortunately, Brokaw doesn't delve deep enough to support the main contention of his book. He seems to have concentrated on individual achievements during the war (which were inarguably outstanding), but gave relatively short shrift to his subjects' postwar achievements (which to me should have been the essential proof of Brokaw's overall premise. After all, many veterans who served in the decades since World War II have also become community leaders, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and politicians; it may be fairly argued that many of their achievements, while not yet fully tested in the crucible of history, will prove as significant as those of the generation Brokaw writes about). I also was left questioning how careful the author was in selecting the subjects about which he wrote. It seemed many of his selections were based on his own personal knowledge of the people he chronicled. Perhaps, with more research, he could have found subjects whose achievements after the war provided better support for his argument.Like other reviewers, I found the author's writing to be at best average. He writes very much like he speaks; as a long-time viewer of NBC Nightly News, I found myself almost able to hear Brokaw's voice as I read along. "The Greatest Generation" is a book which I feel has great potential left unfulfilled. It could have been a towering chronicle of the lives of some genuine American heroes, but falls short due to obviously inadequate research and a lack of focus. Its one major redeeming feature is that it has made generations of Americans since World War II understand better, and respect more, the people whose sacrifices during the war really did change the second half of the twentieth century. In doing that, this book does serve an admirable purpose.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly Written Book; Lacks Support For The Overall Premise
Review: One thing is certain - Tom Brokaw is no author. His writing abilities are fair at best. He paints broad conclusions without support. He drills on and on with cliches while giving little attention to the fascinating facts that should have dominated his account. Although many of the individuals for whom chapters are devoted have lived fascinating lives, Brokaw demonstrates an uncanny ability to reduce these stories into fluff summaries. He pays relatively little attention to what one would expect to be a main focus - combat experience. For example, Brokaw states that everyone knows about Bob Dole's war record and injuries so Brokaw won't repeat it in the book. Yet he repeats in detail aspects of Dole's political experiences with which the public is surly much more familiar. The war is much more interesting, and is the basis for the book, so why skip it? Because of these flaws and Brokaw's sub-par writing style, I finished reading this book with less respect for Brokaw's intellect than when I started. On a larger scale, the premise of the book is a simple one - that the World War II generation is the greatest generation America has put forth. However, Brokaw seems to ignore the issue of cause and effect. Brokaw fails to explain why the WWII generation caused the successes of WWII and beyond, as opposed to factual circumstance (the existence of the war and the already-existing might of the USA) simply providing avenues for success. For the majority of the people in the book, there is only a tentative connection between the war and their later endeavors. Wouldn't any generation have come to the defense of the USA? The simple fact that great individuals lived and participated in the war does not prove Brokaw's point. A book narrating the lives of great people could be created for ANY generation. Are the people that make up Generation X less able? Or is it simply that these individuals have not been forced to prove themseleves in a manner such as those in WWII? Of course, the majority of these questions are unanswerable. I agree that the USA and the world owes a great debt to the WWII generation. They have built the world as it is today. Brokaw simply presents no proof, and could not offer any proof, that other generations, if given the same situation, would not have performed as well, if not better.
Rating:
Summary: The book of the twentieth century
Review: The generation that Brokaw wrote have been through World War I and II. All the people listed in the book have moved me to look beyond how the wars have affected America. Americans are real people. A very moving book.
Rating:
Summary: Yes this is a history book, but then again...
Review: As a future historian I am amazed in how journalists can write a book on a historical topic and think they are giving an accurate historical portrayal. When I bought The Greatest Generation I was looking forward to reading some priceless primary material. I was very disappointed. The men and women who lived through WWII do have unique qualities that are not seen in other generations, but does that mean they are the greatest? I think not. They made mistakes like every other generation. There was divorce, spousal abuse, fatherless children, STD's, double standards. I respect the men and women who fought this war on the home front and the war front a great deal, but are they truly the greatest? No generation was truly great, many were just very unique. As Americans we should honor that uniqueness, but we should not forget that each generation has made their share of mistakes.
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