Book Review — The Silent Generation by Anthony Stolz
Anthony Stolz gives us a firsthand account of what it was like for Traditionalists (“the Silent Generation”) to persist during and after the harshness of World War II
As I keep delving into the rich histories of American generations across these last two centuries, I wanted to give a voice to the third chronological cohort known as “The Silent Generation.” Unfortunately, full-length books of nonfiction that focus on this generation appear to be in short supply.
In 2001, a fairly-innocuous writer named Anthony Stolz published a memoir entitled The Silent Generation: A Memoir of the Depression Babies, The Parents of the Baby Boomers. This short retrospective gives a decade-by-decade rundown of Stolz’s perspective belonging to the group of Americans born roughly between 1930 through 1943. He intersperses his own political opinions with vivid memories of past decades through which he lived.
Members of “The Silent Generation” are often alternately called “Traditionalists” or (Stolz’s preferred term) “Depression Babies.” For ease of reference, I’ll refer to them, collectively, as Traditionalists during a majority of occasions where I need a descriptor for them within this book review.
