Silent Generation

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The name Silent Generation was coined in the November 5, 1951 cover story of Time to refer to the generation within the United States coming of age at the time. The phrase gained further currency after William Manchester's comment that the members of this generation were "withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous and silent." The name was used by Strauss and Howe in their book Generations as their designation for that generation in the United States of America born from 1925 to 1942. The generation is also known as the Postwar Generation and the Seekers, when it is not neglected altogether and placed by marketers in the same category as the G.I., or "Greatest", Generation. In England they were named the Air Raid Generation as children growing up amidst the crossfire of World War II.

According to Strauss and Howe's interpretation, the typical grandparents were of the Missionary Generation; their parents were of the Lost Generation and G.I. Generation. Their children are Baby Boomers and Generation X (a.k.a. 13th Generation) - or sometimes labeled as Generation Jones. Their typical grandchildren are of the Generation Y (a.k.a. Millennials.)

The Silent Generation was caught between the get-it-done G.I.s and the vocal "world-changing" Boomers. Well into their rising adulthood, they looked to the G.I.s for role models and pursued what then looked to be a lifetime of refining, humanizing, and ameliorating a G.I.-built world. Come the mid-1960s, the Silent fell under the trance of their free-spirited next-juniors, the Boomers. As songwriters, graduate students, and young attorneys, they mentored the Consciousness Revolution, founding several of the organizations of political dissent the Boom would later radicalize.

The Silent grew up as the suffocated children of war and depression. They came of age too late to be war heroes (they fought the Korean War to a tie) and just too early to be youthful free spirits. Instead, this early-marrying Lonely Crowd became the risk-averse technicians, sensitive rock-n-rollers ("Why must I be a teenager in love?") brooding Method actors and civil rights advocates of a post-Crisis era in which conformity seemed a sure ticket to success. Subsequently, Midlife was an anxious "passage" for a generation torn between stolid elders and passionate juniors. Content not to make waves, compliant to high defense spending policies during peacetime, their surge to power coincided with fragmenting families, cultural diversity, institutional complexity, and prolific litigation. In 2003, they are entering elderhood with unprecedented affluence, a hip style, and a reputation for indecision. Thus far, they are the only generation from which no president of the United States was ever selected.

David Foot in Boom Bust and Echo takes a very different perspective on this group arguing that those born in the 1930s and early 1940s are the most successful generation. He argues that because so few people were born during the depression and the war that employment opportunities were abundant and this group quickly rose to the top and became the management and superiors of the great mass of baby boomers that came after them. Using economic indicators he finds that 1938 was the best year to be born in North America, in terms of economic success. The impact of the generation was also great culturally, as the musicians and thinkers such as Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Bob Dylan who shaped the fashions of the boomers and were often associated with the pop culture of the 1960s and 1970s.

U.S. Generations
* = dates disputed, ^ = Strauss and Howe
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Term Period
^Puritan Generation
 1588–1617
Puritan Awakening 1621–1649
^Cavalier Generation
^Glorious Generation
^Enlightenment Generation
^Awakening Generation		 1618-1648
1648-1673
1674-1700
1701–1723
First Great Awakening 1727–1746
^Liberty Generation
^Republican Generation
^Compromise Generation		 1724–1741
1742–1766
1767–1791
Second Great Awakening 1790–1844
Transcendentalist Generation
^Transcendental Generation
^Gilded Generation
^Progressive Generation		 1789–1819
1792–1821
1822–1842
1843–1859
Third Great Awakening 1886–1908
^Missionary Generation
Lost Generation
Interbellum Generation
G.I. Generation
Greatest Generation		 1860–1882
1883–1900
1900–1910
1900–1924
1911–1924
Jazz Age 1918-1929
Beat Generation
Silent Generation
Baby Boomers
Generation Jones		 fl. 1950s-1960s
1925–1945
*1940s-1960s
1954–1965
Consciousness Revolution 1964–1984
Generation X
^13th Generation
MTV Generation
Boomerang Generation		 *1960s–1980s
1961-1981
1974–1985
1977–1986
Culture Wars 1980s–present
Generation Y
^Millennial Generation
Echo Boom Generation
Internet Generation
^New Silent Generation		 *1970s–1990s
1982-2000
*1982–1995
*1994–2001
*1990s or 2000s-?

The Silent generation has produced America's late 20th century and early 21st century facilitators and technocrats. They produced four decades of Presidential aides:

And three First Ladies:

But no Presidents.

They achieved a majority on the United States Supreme Court in 1993 with the appointment of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Preceded by
G.I. Generation
1901 – 1924

(Strauss & Howe)

 Silent Generation
1925 – 1942

(Strauss & Howe)

 Succeeded by
Baby Boomers
1943 – 1960

(Strauss & Howe)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/i/l/Silent_Generation_ebde.html"
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