![]() Their attitudes leaned toward not being risk-takers and playing it safe. Unlike the previous generation who had fought for "changing the system," the Silent Generation was about "working within the system." They did this by keeping their heads down and working hard, thus earning themselves the "silent" label. When the Silent Generation began coming of age after World War II, they were faced with a devastated social order within which they would spend their early adulthood and a new enemy in Communism via the betrayal of post-war agreements and rise of the Soviet Union. They saw the fall of Nazism and the catastrophic devastation made capable of the nuclear bomb. Many lost their fathers or older siblings who were killed in the war. Before reaching their teens, they shared with their parents the horrors of World War II but through children's eyes. Characteristics United States As children and adolescents A girl listening to vacuum-tube radio during the Great DepressionĪs a cultural narrative, the Silent Generation are described as children of the Great Depression whose parents, having revelled in the highs of the Roaring Twenties, now faced great economic hardship and struggled to provide for their families. People born in the later years of World War II who were too young to have any direct recollections of the conflict are sometimes considered to be cultural, if not demographically, baby boomers. Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe use 1925 to 1942. ![]() This generation had reached maturity as early as 1946 and as late as 1963, but the majority of Silents had become of age in the 1950s, in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, which was followed by older boomers in the 1960s. The Intergenerational Centre of the Resolution Foundation has used 1926 to 1945, while the Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management uses the range 1925 to 1945. According to this definition, people of the Silent Generation are 77 to 95 years old in 2023. The Pew Research Center uses 1928 to 1945 as birth years for this cohort. The cohort is also known as the "Traditionalist Generation". The term "Silent Generation" is also used to describe a similar age group in the UK but has been at times described as a reference to strict childhood discipline which taught children to be "seen but not heard." In Canada, it has been used with the same meaning as in the United States. A reason later proposed for this perceived silence is that as young adults during the McCarthy Era, many members of the Silent Generation felt it was unwise to speak out. The Time article used birth dates of 1923 to 1933 for the generation, but the term somehow migrated to the later years currently in use. It has been called the "Silent Generation." It does not issue manifestoes, make speeches or carry posters. By comparison with the Flaming Youth of their fathers & mothers, today's younger generation is a still, small flame. With some rare exceptions, youth is nowhere near the rostrum. The most startling fact about the younger generation is its silence. Time magazine first used the term "Silent Generation" in a November 5, 1951, article titled "The Younger Generation", although the term appears to precede the publication: Their own parents most commonly belonged to either the Greatest Generation or the Lost Generation. Most people of the Silent Generation are the parents of Generation X and younger baby boomers. The term "the builders" has been used to describe a similar cohort in Australia. The Sixtiers is a similar age group in the Soviet Union whose upbringings were also heavily influenced by the troubles of the mid-20th century. They lived through times of prosperity as young adults, economic upheaval in middle age, and relative comfort in later life. ![]() In the United Kingdom, the silent generation was also born during a period of relatively low birthrates for similar reasons to the United States and was quite traditional upon coming of age. However, they have also been noted as forming the leadership of the civil rights movement and the 1960s counterculture, and creating the rock and roll music of the 1950s and 1960s. Upon coming of age in the postwar era, Silents were sometimes characterized as trending towards conformity and traditionalism, as well as comprising the " silent majority". It includes most of those who fought during the Korean War. In the United States, the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II in the early-to-mid 1940s caused people to have fewer children and as a result, the generation is comparatively small. Census data, there were 23 million Silents in the United States as of 2019. The generation is generally defined as people born from 1928 to 1945. The Silent Generation, also known as the Traditionalist Generation, is the Western demographic cohort following the Greatest Generation and preceding the baby boomers.
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