The Greatest Generation is a pithy term used to describe those US citizens who fought in World War II, as well as the women who either served in the war or kept the home front intact during it. Some of those who survived the war then went on to build and rebuild the United States' industries in the years following the war. Many more died in poverty. In the theory of Howe and Strauss, the term means those born in the United States from about 1911 through 1924, and who form the second half of that theory's G.I. Generation. Broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw wrote of them in his 1998 book, The Greatest Generation.
Sources
- The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw (1998)
- The Great Boom 1950-2000: How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most Prosperous Society by Robert Sobel
