The Greatest Generation Grows Up

The Greatest Generation Grows Up, by Kriste Lindenmeyer, is a remarkably compelling and enlightening account of the children who came of age in the 1930s. Lindenmeyer borrows her title from Tom Brokaw, who nostalgically referred to the individuals who lived through the Great Depression and fought in World War II as “the greatest generation.” Lindenmeyer chooses not to contest Brokaw's assessment of the youth of that era. However, hers is a work of serious historical scholarship that captures rather than memorializes the many diverse experiences of children growing up during the Great Depression. Stories of newsboys and bootblacks, Mexican students who contested segregation, and children who pleaded with Eleanor Roosevelt to help keep their families from starving bring this history to life, making it a perfect text for courses on the history of childhood. Whether examining New Deal policies, the role of the high school, or popular culture, Lindenmeyer demonstrates how the tentacles of national policies and cultures reached throughout the nation, transforming the experience of growing up. Children in far-flung places studied the same subjects in school, listened to the same radio programs, and might have been among the 10 percent of students who participated in the National Youth Administration program

American history · CONTEST · Depression (economics · Great Depression · History of childhood · New Deal · Poison control · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Suicide prevention · World War II · Anthropology · Australian History and Society · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Medicine

• Youth, Christianity, and the Crisis of Civilization, 1930-1945

  Open Access•Thomas E Bergler•Religion and American Culture A…•2014

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