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A Book Report: on The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw 2001. Tom Brokaw is hailing from South Dakota, graduated from the University of South Dakota with a degree in political science. He started his journalism career in Omaha and Atlanta before joining NBC News in 1966. During Watergate scandal investigation, Tom Brokaw was the White House correspondent for NBC news. He had anchored from 1976 to 1981 Today on NBC. Since 1983, he has been sole anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly news.
Tom Brokaw won two Dupont's award, a Peabody Award and several Emmys. Tom Brokaw, who is the NBC television anchorman, got the idea for his book while working in 1984 on a documentary about the 50 th anniversary of D-Day landing. Brokaw who was born in 1940 had recalled his own experience as an army brat and lived in a military base in South Dakota and plodding ahead with the television special, Brokaw began to witness those who had fought the war and won the peace, those who had come of the age during the depression and gone on to combat abroad and valuable work during the early 1940 s, as unique. In 41 brief chapters, Brokaw captures biographical snapshots of more than 50 members of the generation who entered adulthood as the world endured the flames of the Second World War. He illustrates persuasively that the values and fabric of our nation-despite its imperfections equipped with these men and women to encounter enormous challenges and overcome obstacles, even as they expended their sweat and blood to protect and extend democracy and freedom. His specialty was that telling their stories succinctly and feelingly.
Brokaw nonetheless succeeds in demonstrating his point about the generations superb qualities. Brokaw acknowledges that the differences among Americans originated from diverse social and geography background. They were not lockstep in their ideologies. Their varied views on social, diplomatic and military questions were particularly manifest in their postwar contributions to our nations development. [p. 330 ]. The labors and sacrifices of many of the individuals whose lives were tested by this global conflict continued to build the Untied States into the worlds superpower, even as the echoes of gunfire and explosions dimmed from our memories. In one recollection, Brokaw narrated the ordeals of Tom Broderick, who in so many ways embodies the best qualities of his generation.
He was wounded gravely and totally blinded in action but able to accept his limitations, which he refuses to see as a handicap. Latter, Tom Broderick married, got children, started a business and became a model citizen. He narrated the turmoil encountered by a surgeon in the 101 st Airborne, namely Charles Van Girder, who participated in the D day invasion. He uttered that he had the flashbacks of the war every day. You cant get it out of your mind. [p 35 ]. Protracting his faith on god thorough combat and captivity, this great surgeon describes how and his fellow surgeons operated non-stop for 36 hours, until finally I got tired my head fell down into an open abdomen. [p 28 ].
Brokaw went to great lengths to confirm that the nobility of this generation is not restricted to its combatants. People on the home front pitched in to do their share and work towards victory. He also repeatedly asserted that this generation was not without flaws particularly the stains of racism that were pervasive in practice and in policy. [p 183 ]. For certain readers, the veracity of this sad truth would be more powerful if Brokaw mentioned that less frequently in his narrative and allowed the far more persuasive testimonies of its victims to stand on their own stark merit.
A case in point is the shocking story of Sgt, Johnnie Holmes, who encountered real, bitter racial hatred and segregation for the first time, When he arrived for training in Kentucky. Brokaw records that Holmes is persuaded that Fort Knox dentists experimented on the black soldiers. He recalls being strapped in a dentist chair and getting his teeth drilled with no novocaine. [p 195 ]. Tom Brokaw, who is also a news anchor, briefs the story of meeting a young New York City fireman a week after 9 / 11 tragedy. The fireman had just participated in a memorial service for some of his fallen contemporaries and the two of them conversed about the tragedy.
When Brokaw said goodbye after the meeting, the fireman grabbed his arm and his expression took on a tone of utter discrimination and he uttered, Mr. Brokaw, watch my generation now, just watch us. And as the author of the acclaimed The great generations the story of the world war II cohort that saved America from Nazism and Mr. Brokaw said he knew just what the fireman was saying: This is our turn to be the greatest generation. Since the Great generation is collection of stories relating to large number of individuals, some may be fascinated by the combat stories while others may be attracted by many stories of love and fidelity. Some may find the postwar accounts of community service and a strong commitment to a profound work ethic particularly intriguing.
Some will see parallels between these stories and the lives of their grand parents and parents. Some may witness a panorama of patriotism which they might not have witnessed earlier. Though the book narrates war incidents, it does include enough humor and surprises like the story of Julia child, who found herself ineligible for the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. [WAVES] because of her six feet, two inches height. But she relentlessly strived for her way into the Office of Strategic Services and finally ended up in Bombay, India. Child Julia, now in eighty, narrates her sailing aboard a troopship which she described it as quite memorable. The trip was quite jolly.
There were not very many women and lots of boys. [p 301 ]. Andy Rooney and Art Buchwald also share their unique, insights into military life. The book includes majority of experiments which are recaptured by average people who are not too different from us whereas it also contains the narratives of a number of people with the recognizable names. Some critics have criticized that delicate undercurrent of bias in the Greatest Generation.
Though Brokaw has never revealed his personal politics a secret but critics are of the view that any instances are unintentional. However, in a chapter stating that President Bush represents an matchless record of public service, it is somewhat saddening to read a phrase such as by his own admission George Bush is not a reflective man he answered in that clumsy but endearing way of his [pp 275 - 78 ]. Brokaw's book narrates about home front, ordeals of combat abroad, about Brokaw's own father, who did duty stateside, men and women whose mundane tasks facilitated the war effort and whose devotion to duty, though less glamorous and less dangerous, was still part of the what the country needed. Brokaw speaks out in his book on shame on the treatment of black soldiers both at home and abroad, on Japanese-Americans who were interned and on Hispanics who were also treated with racial outlook. He further explains in this aspect of American behavior in the 1940 s are well known.
He elaborately discusses the generations activities after the war to end legally enforced racial segregation, though he does not contend sufficiently with the bitter resistance of many within this generation to precisely those developments. As per Brokaw, this generation is united not only by a common cause but also by common values honor, duty, service, economic courage, love of family and country and above all, responsibility for oneself. Tom Brokaw is reminding us that he is in awe them, these men and women who have bestowed us the world we have today and he felt privileged to have been witness to their stories. When he came to know many of them, he became again and again moved by their everyday excellence and more or less convinced that this being the greatest generation of our countrys history. Brokaw's book, nonetheless, serves its purposes well and occasions a personal thought. A limitation of the volume is Brokaw's predisposition towards exaggeration which is more valid but understandable.
Taking into consideration the topic that here we have a generation of men and women who dwarf both their descendants and ancestors. Instead, Brokaw sets the members of this revered generation on a podium as it were, in the hope that we can both discover from them, recalling the essence of what made them exceptional and remember to share a well-deserved thank, you with each of them while we still have the occasion. REFERENCE: Brudnoy, David. "Generation Excellent. " National Review 8 Feb. 1999: 53.
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