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Celebrating Life After 50
February/Ma rch 2015
Prime Time War Babies: Longevity Briefs
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VOL. 15
NO. 2 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015
The Generation That Changed America
“War Babies” are those born between 1939 and 1945. According to a new book by Richard Pells, this sometimes forgotten but distinctive generation is largely responsible for reshaping American culture after World War II.
Dale Chihuly, Judy Collins, American internationally-renowned songstress, photo courtesy glass artist, photo courtesy Judy Collins Dale Chihuly
Craig T. Nelson © Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime. com - Craig T. Nelson, Doria Cook Photo
Jimi Hendrix, rock icon, © Amandamhanna | Dreamstime. com - Jimi Hendrix Broken Mirrors Photo
Merrilee Rush at Dick Dick Scobee, Commander Clark’s show “Happening,” Space Shuttle Challenger, circa 1968. Courtesy photo courtesy NASA Merrilee Rush
A sampling of notable “War Babies” born in Washington State between the years 1939 and 1945: JoAnne Carner (Kirkland), Hall of Fame golfer (’39) Dale Chihuly (Tacoma), internationally-renowned glass artist (‘41) Judy Collins (Seattle), folk singer (‘39) Jimi Hendrix (Seattle), rock musician (’42) Ed Kirkpatrick (Spokane), major league baseball player (’44) Richard Kovacevich (Tacoma), CEO of Wells Fargo (’43) Craig T. Nelson (Spokane), actor (’44) Merrilee Rush (Seattle), singer best known for Angel of the Morning, (’44) Ron Santo (Seattle), member Baseball Hall of Fame (’40) Dick Scobee (Cle Elem) Commander Space Shuttle Challenger (’39)
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ichard Pells has never been a traditional historian. This wellknown scholar is primarily interested in 20th century American culture. His most recent book, War Babies – The Generation That Changed America, analyzes the impact of the generation born between 1939 and 1945 in transforming American culture and politics over the past fifty years. “My inspiration for writing War Babies came from my attendance in 2009 at the 50th reunion of my high school class,” said Pells. “All of these people were born in 1940 or 1941. It occurred to me that no one
had written about us as a distinctive generation, so I coined the phrase “war babies” which became the title of my book.” Pells wanted to examine how members of this generation, with their own unique experiences and values, have had such a dramatic impact on American culture. Pells’ view is that war babies were instrumental in changing the music, movies and politics that have transformed American culture forever. The book studies the influence of singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Barbara Sreisand, Janis Joplin and Simon & Garfunkel; movie directors like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese; actors like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Faye Dunaway and Harrison Ford; athletes like Muhammad Ali and Billie Jean King; journalists like
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as well as many others in the fields of culture and politics. According to Pells, war babies are often overshadowed by the two generations that bookend them: the “greatest generation” and the baby boomers. Pells contends that war babies initiated most of the social and cultural movements that boomers have claimed over the years; many of the people causing the changes in the 60s and 70s were war babies, not boomers, he says. “And while boomers often take a lot of the credit for reshaping American culture in the last half of the 20th century, the war babies had an enormous impact on postwar America,” writes Pells. Pells looks closely at how elements of American life during war babies’ childhoods shaped their
careers such as: the prevalence of polio; culturally-dense neighborhoods like Little Italy in Manhattan; immigrant parents; impoverished conditions; the cold war and pacifism. “The book is about my generation and what we went through in the 40s and 50s during the cold war, in the 60s during all the upheavals, in the 70s in terms of Watergate…We are the children of Pearl Harbor and we’re the adults of 9-11. We have lived through real catastrophes that Americans have faced and I think that has shaped us as well as the entire country.” Book reviewer Irene Roth writes of War Babies, “There was something important about growing up during a time of upheaval and uncertainty. People brought up during these years never took continued on page 14