5808. An Album of Memories Personal Histories from the Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw (read 1 Nov 2022) This book was published in 2001 and grew out of Brokaw's book on the greatest generation which I read on 16 Jan 1999. This book consists mainly of letters written by people after they read that book. The letters seem to be unedited and often are sincere but bland, though some are a bit poignant. I did not mind reading them but did not believe many were great missives. Some of what Brokaw himself wrote made me aware that he was born in 1940 and thus had no or minimal memory of the war, whereas I, born in 1928, was acutely aware of war developments tho only an Iowa farm boy, I had a brother in the Army all during the war--tho only in combat in 1944 and 1945--and we were avidly conscious of war developments and had cousins in war and sometimes in combat. ( )

Tom Brokaw is certainly a respected news anchor and reporter, but younger readers, and older ones as well, owe him a great debt for collecting and saving these very personal stories from "the greatest generation". Often the most difficult part of aging is losing those people with whom you can share your memories. Frequently participants in great events are reluctant to speak about their experiences, feeling they will be too graphic, or worse, uninteresting to others. When the last survivor has passed on, there are only the textbooks, written by the victors and edited through the eyes of those who did not know these times. They will have their own agendas, and too often they are limited in space by publishers to a sentence or two, if the event is not eventually discarded altogether. Tom Brokaw has provided humankind with a great service and legacy of his own by preserving the stories of eye witnesses. No matter how prejudiced their viewpoint or imperfect their memories, these communications are from those who were there, and they give us their eyewitness view as history was being made. If some of the stories are somewhat repetitive or long-winded, this can be forgiven, since it is better to have too much of a story than not enough. Pick and choose your stories or read the book cover to cover, but leave it to the reader to be the editor, as any great reporter knows. ( )

Tom Brokaw, one of the best and most prestigious journalists in America, argues that the dying World War II vets are the 'greatest generation.' ( )

Further letters, reflections and photographs from the survivors of World War II and their families. All are interesting and moving, some especially poignant, particularly letters written by soldiers to loved ones just prior to their deaths. Anybody seeking to gain a further understanding for the times that defined this generation should read Brokaw's books. ( )