The 86th Infantry Division, the first combat division to return from the European theater, is greeted with much fanfare upon its arrival in New York, June 17, 1945.

The Worst Years of Their Lives

By Clifford Krauss

The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II by David Nasaw

After the Vietnam debacle, it was only natural for Americans to look back nostalgically on the triumph of World War II. Journalist Tom Brokaw memorably dubbed the men and women who saved the world from Nazi tyranny and Japanese imperialism, launching a golden age for American society, as “the Greatest Generation.”

David Nasaw doesn’t buy into this accepted wisdom. In The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II, the acclaimed social historian takes a scalpel to our collective wistfulness and finds something much more nuanced, messier, and sadder underneath. Trauma, disorientation, and societal neglect marked the return home of the warriors, leaving wounds—both visible and invisible—that would shape their lives for decades.