Greatest Generation
[1] They were shaped by the Great Depression and were the primary generation composing the enlisted forces in World War II.
He spoke to Congress, saying, "The men of the Eighth Army are a magnificent lot, and I have always said the greatest generation of Americans we have ever produced.
While the oldest members of the Interbellum Generation came of age at the close of the 1910s in 1919, the majority reached maturity in the 1920s and the minority had grown up in the initial years of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1932.
US members of this generation came of age as early as 1919 and as late as 1945, were children, or were born during the Progressive Era, World War I, and the Roaring Twenties; a time of economic prosperity with distinctive cultural transformations.
[8] They also experienced much of their youth with rapid technological innovation (e.g., radio, telephone, automobile) amidst growing levels of worldwide income inequality[9][10][11] and a soaring economy.
[12][13][14] After the Stock Market crashed, when many had matured in the 1930s, this generation experienced profound economic and social turmoil.
[15] The popularity of the radio also became a major influence in the lives of this generation, as millions tuned in to listen to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "fireside chats" and absorbed the news in a way like never before.
38.8% were volunteers, 61.2% were draftees, the average length of their service was 33 months, and total approximate casualties were 671,278 (killed and wounded).
[17] American journalist Tom Brokaw and others extol this generation for supporting and fighting World War II.
The first member of their generation to be elected US president, John F. Kennedy, began a Space Race against the Soviet Union, and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, further promoted a controversial "Great Society" policy.
Elder followed 167 individuals born in California between 1920 and 1921 and "traced the impact of Depression and wartime experiences from the early years to middle age.
[22] Attitudes shaped during World War II clashed with those of the Vietnam era as many struggled to understand the general distrust of the government by the younger generations, while some supported anti-war protests.
[31][32] In Britain, this generation came of age, like most of the western world, during a period of economic hardship as a result of the Great Depression.
They faced economic hardships related to the Great Depression and Treaty of Versailles as unemployment rose to nearly 40%.
[36] Surviving members of the German World War II generation would go on to experience the fall of the Berlin Wall and the creation of the European Union.
Stalin's scorched earth policy left its western regions in a state of devastation worsened by the advancing German Army.
The USSR lost 14% of its pre-war population during WWII, a demographic collapse that would have immense long-term consequences.
[38] The World War II generation of Japan came of age during a time of rapid imperialism.
[41] Even after defeat, Japan would achieve unprecedented prosperity through businesses such as Sony Corporation (founded by Akio Morita) and cultural influence, as in cinema by Akira Kurosawa.
