This was, indeed, the greatest generation; no other overcame such hardships, no other matches its accomplishments. The contrarian whinning about how segregation was not immediately ended in 1945, or that war should never be glorified, is silly and unjustified. The only major shortcoming of the 1930-45 generation is that they spoiled their kids; that and Richard Nixon.

how can you people say this was a good generation?????????? they had a WORLD WAR how is this something to be celebrated and given such praise is it a good thing to kill other people. people who kill for crime/religion/political/law enforcement,etc purposes all have the most important thing in common they all KILL. a geneation that has accomplished the feat of causing its entire planet to go to war against each other has nothing to be proud of and only mistakes hopefully future generations will not make, especially since it appears we havent learned that much yet as a species we are still at war and nearly the entire planet will we ever learn?

Look, these are great people. . .it is a great generation. . .but let's not get carried away. The greatest generation? Yes, they deserve love for sacrifices. . .but they aren't the greatest. This generation silently or overtly contributed to racial, financial, and social-class segregation. They fought racism and sepratism overseas and did little or nothing on the homefront. While they do deseve respect, the silly they-did-nothing-wrong-love-fest has got to stop. I'll take the many of the first generation of American Revolutionaries (warts and all) AND/OR the Civil-War era folks any day of the week and twice on Sunday over the alleged 'greatest generation.' What a load of crap meant to sell books.

CanadaSucks are you serious?What is the best generation?The Woodstock,pot smoking,war protesting,hippie,reprobate,morally decadent era?

This is the generation by which all others will be measured. They really were the greatest generation. My parents were born in the twenties and came of age during the forties, my father (and uncles) serving in the Army during WWII. The music, the movies and the entertainers from that era will never be surpassed. It was a time of extreme dispair (The Depression) and a great victory (WWII) and everything in between. The men from this era were hard. If your parents were around during the depression then you probably were never able to leave a room in the house without turning out the lights, or you would never hear the end of it, or worse, you couldn't leave the table while food was still on the plate. They couldn't understand, much less tolerate, waste. They were right, of course. These are the men I strive to be like. They were a generation of heroes, both men and women.

Although the years don't coincide exactly, this was the generation of my parents and to a lesser extent, my grandparents. My grandparents kept the family together through the depression as my parents grew up in it. It was a time of neighbor helping neighbor and those who were fortunate enough to keep their lives intact shared with those who had fallen on hard times. During this time my great grandfather lost possession of a building that he owned because when people could not pay the rent he did not have the heart to evict them, knowing that if put onto the street their next apartment would very likey turn out to be in an area with a lesser quality of life, such as it was during the depression. When World War Two broke out my Dad served in the war and my Mom, fresh out of college, worked in the family business (pharmacy) and volunteered at Canteens and USO facilities. They were married in 1948 and had their first child, my older brother, in 1949, which was typical of what the young people were doing in large numbers back in that time. While the previous generation had lived a life of prosperity in the 1920s it came to a sudden halt when the depression hit. The generation after them, my parents generation, having been tempered by the depression and war, lived the American dream and gave us unprecedented economic growth that lasted until the early 1970s. Many of the things that we take for granted today such as television and instant communication, computers, malls, creature comforts, even the design of our interstate highway system, can trace its heritage to the ingenuity and efforts of what has often been called, and rightly so, the greatest generation.