Silent Generation is a label for the generation of people born during the Great Depression
and World War II.
The label was originally applied to people in North America but has also been applied
to those in Western Europe, Australasia and South America.
It includes most of those who fought during the Korean War.
In the United States, the generation was comparatively small because the financial insecurity of
the 1920s and 1930s caused people to have fewer children.
While there were many civil rights leaders, writers, and artists, the Silent Generation
is called that because many focused on their careers rather than on activism, and people
in it were largely encouraged to conform with social norms.
Time Magazine coined the name in a 1951 article entitled The Younger Generation, and the name
has stuck ever since.
References
See also List of generations
External links TIME Magazine, The Younger Generation, 1951
TIME Magazine, The Silent Generation Revisited, 1970
The Silent Generation