Summary of Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 I went to Normandy, France, to film an NBC documentary on the fortieth anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe that marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. I was unprepared for how this experience would affect me emotionally.
#2 The American veterans who landed on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 were all around me as I was growing up. I had never appreciated what they had been through and what they had accomplished.
#3 The World War II generation was a group of men who were transformed by their experiences, but they did not volunteer their stories. I had to ask questions or stay back a step or two as they walked the beaches, quietly exchanging memories.
#4 The 1984 trip to Normandy was the first time Merli and Garton had met each other, and they shared memories of the chaos and death all around them. They were both extremely determined to survive.

Sujets

• Général
• 20th century
• modern

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 07 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669381747
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I went to Normandy, France, to film an NBC documentary on the fortieth anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe that marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. I was unprepared for how this experience would affect me emotionally.

#2

The American veterans who landed on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 were all around me as I was growing up. I had never appreciated what they had been through and what they had accomplished.

#3

The World War II generation was a group of men who were transformed by their experiences, but they did not volunteer their stories. I had to ask questions or stay back a step or two as they walked the beaches, quietly exchanging memories.

#4

The 1984 trip to Normandy was the first time Merli and Garton had met each other, and they shared memories of the chaos and death all around them. They were both extremely determined to survive.

#5

The war stories that are shared at gatherings are almost always about someone else. They rarely reflect on the bravery of the storyteller.

#6

After the Republican Revolution of 1995, which saw the Baby Boomers take control of the House, they were determined to deconstruct many of the policies put in place by Democrats during their long congressional rule.

#7

I was inspired by the men and women of World War II, and I wanted to spread the word about their remarkable lives. I was also inspired by the work of my friend Stephen Ambrose, the historian who had written an account of the invasion called D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II.

#8

The Greatest Generation was the first to live in the modern world, and they were not ashamed to say just that. They loved life and their country, and they were not ashamed to say just that.

#9

The greatest generation is the one that fought in World War II. They were the ones who created the standards of greatness that the people in this book represent.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The year I was born, 1940, was the fulcrum of America in the twentieth century. It was a critical time in the shaping of this nation and the world, and the American people understood the magnitude of the challenge.

#2

By the time he was ten, the young American had a promising start that was quickly shattered by the Great Depression. The fault lines were already active, as the stock market was struggling to recover from the crash of 1929, and American income was falling fast.

#3

In the late 1930s, America was experiencing a great deal of economic hardship. Roosevelt was trying to balance the need for economic revival with the great danger abroad, which was the rise of Nazi Germany and its anti-Semitic leader, Adolf Hitler.

#4

In the fall of 1938, Dwight David Eisenhower, a career soldier who had grown up on a small farm outside of Abilene, Kansas, was a forty-eight-year-old colonel in the U. S. Army. He had an infectious grin and a fine reputation as a military planner, but he had no major combat command experience.

#5

The American military was enlisting hundreds of thousands of young men, and the old rules of gender and expectation were changing radically.

#6

The contributions of this generation transcend gender. The world we live in today was shaped not just on the front lines of combat, but from the Great Depression forward, women were essential to and leaders in the greatest national mobilization of resources and spirit the country had ever seen.
Insights from Chapter 3

#1

When the United States entered World War II, it asked ordinary Americans to do extraordinary things. Many met those high expectations, and after the war, they went back to their old lives.

#2

The consequences of war strike at the very idea of a sound and healthy body. In World War II, more than 292,000 Americans were killed in battle, and more than 1. 7 million returned home physically affected in some way.

#3

Tom Broderick was a veteran who had been blinded in combat. He had spent seventeen weeks in basic training for the infantry in Mineral Wells, Texas, before heading to Fort Benning, Georgia, to become a member of the 82nd Airborne. When he finished his training, a captain offered him an instructor’s job and the rank of sergeant. He refused the safer alternative and wanted to stay with his outfit and go overseas.

#4

Broderick learned braille and became an insurance salesman. He was able to accept his blindness and get on with his life.

#5

Tom and Eileen’s marriage was very successful, and they had five children together. Their family was very close, and Tom was very involved in their upbringing. He couldn’t drive, but he could walk everywhere.

#6

Tom Broderick, who was blinded in Vietnam, helped veterans adjust to their blindness. He never grew bitter or dependent on others, and he always accepted personal responsibility for his actions.

#7

The Allied invasion of France was a stroke of genius that even though it went wrong, succeeded in securing a beachhead in the heart of enemy territory so that the march to Germany and victory could begin.

#8

Charles O. Van Gorder was a 31-year-old captain in the U. S. Army Medical Corps in June 1944, a graduate of the University of Tennessee Medical School. He had already served in North Africa when he volunteered to be part of a two-team surgical unit that would try something new for D-Day: they would be part of the 101st Airborne assault force, setting up medical facilities in the middle of the fighting instead of safely behind the Allied lines.

#9

Van Gorder’s D-Day experience was just the beginning of a frontline career. His unit stayed with the 101st over the next six months as it fought its way across Europe, headed for the heart of Germany.

#10