Your grandparents came of age in the Great Depression, when everyday life was about deprivation and sacrifice, when the economic conditions of the time were so grave and so unrelenting it would have been easy enough for the American dream to fade away.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the resilience of those who lived through the Great Depression and their determination to pursue the American Dream despite hardships.
Tom Brokaw reflects on the struggles faced by the previous generation during the Great Depression. He emphasizes how this challenging era could have obliterated the American Dream, yet many persevered through deprivation and sacrifice, showcasing immense resilience and fortitude. It serves as a reminder of the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
In practice
During a speech about overcoming obstacles, one could reference this quote to illustrate the historical context of resilience.
The WWII generation shares so many common values: duty, honor, country, personal responsibility and the marriage vow " For better or for worse--it was the last generation in which, broadly speaking, marriage was a commitment and divorce was not an option
While Pickstown may not be what it once was, it still is framed by the natural beauty of the ancient river, the sweep of the Great Plains, and the long, unbroken shoreline of the lake behind the dam. It gave me a 19th-century childhood in a modern mid-20th-century town, and for that I will always be grateful.
I am simply the most conspicuous part of a large, thoroughly dedicated and professional staff that extends from just behind these cameras, across this country and around the world, in too many instances, in places of grave danger and personal hardship. They're family to me.
I had good care going. I had Meredith and the family. And I didn't want to become the object of some kind of pity, most of all. I didn't want to show up on the Internet, 'Tom Brokaw has cancer.'
Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away.
It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.
I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.
History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.
One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).
But what began in 1941 was a process of destruction not planned in advance, not organized centrally by any agency. There was no blueprint and there was no budget for destructive measures. They were taken step by step, one step at a time. Thus came about not so much a plan being carried out, but an incredible meeting of minds, a consensus - mind reading by a far-flung bureaucracy.
Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.
...it would be a mistake...to ascribe to Roman legal conceptions an undivided sway over the development of law and institutions during the Middle Ages... The Laws of Moses as well as the laws of Rome contributed suggestions and impulse to the men and institutions which were to prepare the modern world; and if we could have but eyes to see... we should readily discover how very much besides religion we owe to the Jew.
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