Rating: 
Summary: Bits and Pieces
Review: I truly thought that this was a moving and educational book. As someone very removed from the WWII generation, I found this compostion of heroics informational and emotional.Portions of the writing were very cumbersome and heavy, so much so that I had to walk away from the book at times and pick it up again later. However, I do think the entire book is worth reading. I would suggest purchasing the book and reading it in bits and pieces. It would be an excellent addition to anyone's book collection. I think that while everyone should read this book, that everyone who knows a man or woman that came of age during WWII, whether fighting in Europe, Japan, or on our homefront, HAS TO. It will, perhaps, lend meaning and purpose to our past, and shed a light in the direction of our future.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Generation
Review: Book Description and Review After visiting Normandy, in 1984 for the Fortieth Anniversary of D-Day, Tom Brokaw was inspired by the stories of the vets of World War II. Brokaw described this as a life changing experience for he could see the excitement and fear at D-Day. Men would point out their posts and describe the action they had seen and encountered on that fateful day. At the Fiftieth Anniversary he said, "I think this is the greatest generation any society has ever produced." He wrote the book to prove this bold statement and give a tribute to the men and women that lived in this time. Each story is amazing in its own way including everything POWs to WAVES. The book is full of love stories, adventures, and accounts of incredible bravery. One man received a Congressional Metal of Honor for his courage while administering plasma in a war field. Another went up against the speed and agility of the Japanese airforce with amazing results. Some women went to work on the homefront, filing the jobs left by the men, while others joined the Women's division of the Army. Brokaw describe them eloquently when he wrote, "I am in awe of them, and feel privileged to have been a witness of their sacrifices." If Brokaw made one mistake, it is unceasingly inserting himself in the story. His life is irrelevant to this generation because he is younger than these war heroes are. Yet the book remains an excellent primary source history of peoples lives in World War II. It proves how mankind can rise to greatness when he is called to do so.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading, but it's no masterpiece
Review: This book has it's high and low points. Some of the story's can be very sad, some are dull. Overall, it did give me a much better appreciation of my grandparent's generation. They're gone now, but I feel like I understand a little better what they went through with the Great Depression and WWII. It reads fast, and is easy to put down and come back to later. Thus, a good book for the beach when you're watching the kids. Some people debate whether calling them the "Greatest Generation" is fair, one of them is Andy Rooney - I think his chapter in Brokaw's book is one of the best. It's also neat to see the "than and now" photos of the subjects.
Rating:
Summary: A good book...
Review: I was originally interested book after watching Mr. Brokaw's interview on "Tim Russert" a few weeks ago (he was actually talking about his 3rd book about the Greatest Generation). I will admit that I have been caught up in all the "Pearl Harbor" hoopla recently, but this book transcends that. The first 3/4 of the book had me engrossed--I think because it was about ordinary people who did extraordinary things. The last 1/4 didn't have my attention as much--again, I think it was because it was about "famous" people. Although their stories were interesting, they weren't as personal as the non-famous ones. This book has awakened in me the need to talk to my grandparents about the war--before it is too late. If that's the only lesson anyone takes away from this book, then I think that it has done its job.
Rating: 
Summary: Honoring those who deserve it...
Review: Tom Brokaw is not a professional writer, which is sometimes obvious in his book, but in "The Greatest Generation" he serves his main purpose in the undertaking. Browkaw honors everybody in the WWII generation, from soldiers who fought on the front lines to wives that were left behind to keep things smooth on the homefront, and shows the respect that they earned through the sacrifices they made throughout the 1940s. This book clearly depicts the events that many of the survivors of this generation lived through and details the types of things they were forced to give up for the good of the country. It showed me how lucky we were to have a generation of people that were willing to band together as they did and that without them, our country would not be as it is today. The now 70 year olds that lived through the second World War have done as much, if not more, than ANYBODY in the nation's history. Thanks to Brokaw, their stories are now known to the public and will no live on forever. I recommend this book to all Americans. It lets you know what the nation has gone through and what that generation tolerated. Reading the short stories in the book makes me feel proud to be an American and thankful for those that I read of.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat tiring.
Review: A great generation but an average book. Brokaw's celebrity status provided the publicity but you it's just plain boring after the first couple of chapters. The writing is flat and unimaginative.
Rating: 
Summary: Please Don't Jump On The Bandwagon Without Adult Supervision
Review: The most touching part of this book was when the author wrote: "These men were natural leaders. They died one by one. Of each of them, I wonder, What life was cut off here? A genius? It is impossible to imagine what he might have invented; we do know that his loss was our loss. A budding politician? Where might he have led us? A builder? A teacher? A scholar? A novelist? A musician? I sometimes think the biggest price we pay for war is what might have been." Whoops! Wrong book! That's from Ambrose's "The Victors", pp. 353-354. Must be my Old Timer's disease acting up again. I meant to quote Brokaw, p. 11: "They know how many of the best of their generation didn't make it to their early twenties, how many brilliant scientists, teachers, spiritual and business leaders, politicians and artists were lost in the ravages of the greatest war the world has seen." Perhaps imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. After all, you can't expect a talking head to have an original idea, and the entire approach to this "book" was borrowed from Ambrose's series of books about WW2. What bothers me even more is that Brokaw had the chutzpah to accept a Patriots Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Do talking heads have a conscience?
Rating: 
Summary: The Greatest Generation?
Review: Without a doubt, Tom Brokaw's the "Greatest Generation" is a wonderful compilation of the stories of the men and women who fought in World War II and continued that fight into the social sphere. It does well to bring you a representative sample of the "Greatest Generation," from the political elite to your next door neighbor who lives an ordinary life. It brings to life a generation that has so long taken a back seat to the attention-getters of the Baby Boomer generation. It deserves the recognition and Brokaw's book does it justice. Yet was it the "Greatest Generation"? I still do not know, but what is for certain is that this book will not tell you nor will it make a competent argument for it. Perhaps from that standpoint it is good for social discourse, a catalyst for much deeper thought on the subject. Unfortunately, historically it is tragic. One could not think of a more fallacious argument than to make a statement, and then justify it with 30 examples, however touching and inspiring they might be, and then conclude that that generation is better than any generation ever produced by any society merely from those examples. What of the Generation of the American Revolution? Certainly they made sacrifices, certainly they had political and social contributions (I'm writing this because of them), and certainly they fought a "tyranny" of some kind. One could even argue that that tyranny was much closer to home and more threatening than the spread of fascism. Yet any sort of comparative analysis, which is necessary when claiming that anything is the greatest or best, never is made in Brokaw's book. So read it for its memories, read it for it's light shed on a generation so often left in umbrage, but do not read it if you are interested in an intelligent discussion of what makes a generation great, and why this one was so. After all, that would be really hard, and wouldn't sell as many books.
Rating:
Summary: Whether You Love This or Hate It - Still Try the Sequel
Review: I read Brokaw's sequel: "The Greatest Generation Speaks" before reading this one, and that second book is far the better one. Those stories, submitted directly by readers in response to "Greatest Generation", are more compelling and inspiring than those of this original, since they rely on the contributors' own letters rather than Brokaw's "interviews". And "Speaks" successfully avoids the tedious repetition, political shading and denigration of the boomer generation that flaws this work. Read the sequel first, then tackle this one only if you must have more.
Rating:
Summary: How much we owe to those who served.
Review: I received the book as a gift, but did not get into it until months later. What a pleasant surprise. The book brought me in close and personal to those who sacrificed so much to give us the things we take for granted today. We had been given a country, that is a gem above all others in freedom and opportunity to become the best we can be, by those who put their lives on the line. Brokaw has given us the ability to put a name and a face to some of those deeds. Today, we as a nation are losing our sense of morality, our respect for human life and fair play, and our nationalistic pride, the very things that had made us as great as we are. In reading this book, I have a renewed respect for those who served, and a renewed pride in what I am and the nation I am part of. My thanks to Brokaw for helping me remember, but more importantly, my most sincere gratitude to those who put love of country and it's principles above their own safety.
| 
