The G.I. Generation is the generation of Americans that fought and won World War II, later to become the Establishment and the parents who had a generation gap with their Boomer children. The generation is also known as the Greatest Generation (after Tom Brokaw's book), the World War II Generation, the Veteran Generation, the Depression Generation, Builders, and the Traditional Generation or Traditionalists. The name "G.I. Generation" was coined by William Strauss and Neil Howe for their book Generations, who put its birthdates from 1901 to 1924. The term G.I. could stand for "government issue" or "general issue" and this generation stands for both.
Their typical grandparents were of the Progressive Generation. Their parents were of the Missionary Generation and Lost Generation. Their children were of the Silent Generation and Baby boomers. Their typical grandchildren were of Generation X.
A sample list of famous G.I.s with birth and death dates include:
- 1901 Louis Armstrong (1971)
- 1901 Walt Disney (1966)
- 1902 John Steinbeck (1968)
- 1903 Bob Hope (immigrant) (2003)
- 1904 Robert Oppenheimer (1967)
- 1907 John Wayne (1979)
- 1907 Katharine Hepburn (2003)
- 1907 William Levitt (1994)
- 1908 John Kenneth Galbraith (immigrant)
- 1908 Jimmy Stewart (1997)
- 1912 Thomas P. O'Neill ("Tip") (1994)
- 1914 Joe DiMaggio (1999)
- 1914 William Westmoreland
- 1916 Robert McNamara
- 1918 Billy Graham
- 1918 Ann Landers (2002)
- 1922 Judy Garland (1969)
- 1924 Sidney Poitier
- 1924 Lee Iacocca
- The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (film, Walt Disney)
- "In the Mood" (song, Glenn Miller)
- The Honeymooners (TV show, Jackie Gleason)
- The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt)
- West Side Story (Broadway show and movie, Leonard Bernstein)
- The Making of the President: 1960 (Theodore White)
- Modern Economic Growth (Simon Kuznets)
- Roots (book and TV miniseries, Alex Haley)
- Profiles in Courage, (John F. Kennedy)
- The Feminine Mystique, (Betty Friedan)
- War and Remembrance, (Herman Wouk)
There have been seven G.I. Presidents. Here are their birth dates (and death dates for those that have died):
- 1908 Lyndon B. Johnson (1973)
- 1911 Ronald Reagan
- 1913 Richard Nixon (1994)
- 1913 Gerald Ford
- 1917 John F. Kennedy (1963)
- 1924 Jimmy Carter
- 1924 George H. W. Bush
The unstoppable energy of the G.I.s is well characterized in their most enduring comic strip character: Superman. Superman became famous just before World War II occurred and the G.I.s themselves began showing "powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men". Do you need to eradicate poverty, build model cities, tame business cycles, or beat Nazis and Communists at their own game? Step aside, this is a job for Superpower America -- and a generation willing, in Kennedy's words, to "bear any burden, pay any price" to accomplish whatever goal it sets.
After the war, G.I.s built suburban tract housing. In the early 1950s, when the typical 35-year-old's income was $3,000 per year, mortgage rates were 4 percent, and a new Levittown home sold for $7,000 ($350 down and $30 per month).
No generation born before or since has felt or been so Promethean, so godlike in its collective, world-bending power. G.I.s invented, perfected, and stockpiled the atomic bomb, a weapon so muscular and deadly that it changed history forever.