Working Class Hero

(Also available in a less expensive black and white edition.)Tom Brokaw applied the term The Greatest Generation to those who "came of age during the Depression and the Second World War, and went on to build modern America - men and women whose everyday lives of duty, honor, achievement, and courage gave us the world we have today."Without detracting from the record of that generation, I want to draw attention to the preceding generation, the parents who raised these people and...
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(Also available in a less expensive black and white edition.)Tom Brokaw applied the term The Greatest Generation to those who "came of age during the Depression and the Second World War, and went on to build modern America - men and women whose everyday lives of duty, honor, achievement, and courage gave us the world we have today."Without detracting from the record of that generation, I want to draw attention to the preceding generation, the parents who raised these people and instilled in them the qualities and values so essential to their later performance. Those parents faced a major war in their youth, the First World War. With far less education than their children, they faced economic boom and bust, and made career adjustments through changing times. During the Great Depression, they continued to earn a livelihood and to "bring home the bacon" for the fledglings of the Greatest Generation. Many endured major career disruptions again with the onset of the Second World War, yet became too old, or had too many responsibilities, to enter new career fields that opened in the booming postwar years. Many past generations have made enormous contributions, so I will avoid superlatives and any claim to uniqueness. I will refer to this generation simply as A Stalwart Generation. To represent this generation, I will focus on a man of working-class background whose diverse experience touched many aspects of that period's history. His name was Jim. He lived from 1884 to 1954. About the author - Jim Burns is a retired geologist living in Waynesboro, Virginia. He is the father of three grown sons. After more than fifty years of marriage, his wife Jaquelin died in 2006. His early career, mostly with the U.S. Geological Survey, was devoted to applications of earth sciences in solving military problems. His later career was in environmental geology, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Geological Survey. He retired as chief of the Survey's office of environmental affairs. He has written numerous articles, reports, and books on scientific and technical subjects. This is his second book aimed at a general audience. The first was an account of his experience during the Cold War on board a spy ship in the Arctic, titled The Cold Coasts.