Talkin’ ‘Bout Their Generations

MISSIONARY GENERATION

BORN 1860–82

COINAGE

Historians William Strauss and Neil Howe

The Civil War ended during their childhood, and they reached early adulthood with a passion for social causes. They hit middle age with the passage of Prohibition; late in life, they were the architects of the New Deal.

Franklin Roosevelt (b. 1882)

William Jennings Bryan (b. 1860)

‘Veteran teachers are saying that never in their experience were young people so thirstily avid of pleasure as now … so selfish …’

Cornelia A.P. Comer, then in her 40s, in The Atlantic, February 1911

THE LOST GENERATION

BORN 1883–1900

COINAGE

Ernest Hemingway’s epigraph to The Sun Also Rises in 1926

This generation arrived during waves of immigration and rampant urban poverty. As young adults, they were doughboys and flappers of the Roaring ’20s. Crushed by the Great Depression in midlife, they paid high taxes in their later years to help fund World War II.

Mae West (b. 1893)

F. Scott Fitzgerald (b. 1896)

‘I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night.’

From The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie, published in 1923

THE GREATEST GENERATION

BORN 1901–24

COINAGE

Tom Brokaw in The Greatest Generation, published in 1998

As children they gained access to education and the protection of child-labor laws. They came of age during the Depression and fought in World War II. Postwar, they built suburbs and highways, cured polio and gave birth to the baby boomers.

Betty Friedan (b. 1921)

Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)

‘This generation of americans has a rendezvous with destiny.’

Franklin Roosevelt, in a speech at the 1936 Democratic Convention

THE SILENT GENERATION

BORN 1925–42

COINAGE

Referred to in TIME, Nov. 5, 1951

Children of the Depression, they have been referred to as “the lucky few,” a generation smaller than the one before it and which suffered fewer casualties of war. Later, many of them moved into white collar jobs and led society toward the idea of early retirement.

Neil Armstrong (b. 1930)

Carol Burnett (b. 1933)

‘Youth today has little cynicism, because it never hoped for much.’

TIME, Nov. 5, 1951

BABY BOOMERS

BORN 1943–60

COINAGE

First printed on Jan. 23, 1970, in the Washington Post

They were suburban children who came of age in the Summer of Love. In midlife, they became yuppies who lost fortunes in the stock-market crash of 1987. Many have had their savings dented by the Great Recession and will postpone retirement.

Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954)

Tom Hanks (b. 1956)

‘They want to be recognized as individuals, but individuals play a smaller and smaller role in society.’

Senator Robert Kennedy, on hippies, in TIME, July 7, 1967

GENERATION X

BORN 1961–80

COINAGE

Popularized by Douglas Coupland’s novel Generation X, published in 1991

Many were latchkey kids of working moms and divorced parents; they grew into young adults marked by a sense of ennui. Studies have shown that members of this generation may have reversed the historical trend of earning more in real dollars than their parents.

Jennifer Lopez (b. 1969)

Jon Stewart (b. 1962)

‘Our generation has had no great war, no great depression. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.’

From Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, published in 1996

THE MILLENNIALS

BORN 1980–2000

COINAGE

Credited to Strauss and Howe

Also known as Generation Y, they came of age in the shadow of 9/11 and amid the rise of new media. First-wave millennials are now in their early careers amid a slow global economic recovery, with high unemployment and concerns about future national debt.

Mark Zuckerberg (b. 1984)

Lady Gaga (b. 1986)

‘God didn’t give me these talents to just sit around being a model or being famous. I want to lead a huge charity organization. I want to lead a country for all I know.’

Alexis Neiers, member of “the Bling Ring”