Tom Brokaw's best selling book The Greatest Generation and its two sequels perpetutate the myth that the generation of WWII was more honorable, with attributes that set them above today's tawdry society, uniting the country unselfishly as one for the duration of the war. Ken Rose's book, The Myth of the Greatest Generation calls into question this paradigm. By analysizing news reports, memoirs, novels, films and other cultural artifacts, he shows that the war was much more disruptive to the lives of Americans in the military and on the home front than is generally acknowledged. Issues of racial tension, labor unrest, juvenile delinquency and marital infidelity were rampant, and the black market flourished. The Myth of the Greatest Generation examines American experiences in the military and on the home front, and delves into both personal and national issues, calling into question the dominant view of the war as 'the good war', somehow better than any other conflict America's been through.
Myth and the Greatest Generation : A Social History of Americans in World War II