Names of American Generations since 1913.

Ever wonder what the names of the various American Generations are?

William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote a series of books on the subject, with their first book, Generations , covering American generations from 1586 to approximately the present.

They named the generations from the country’s founding as followed: Liberty Generation, Republican Generation, Compromise Generation, Transcendental Generation and the Gilded Generation.

Here’s a list of the accepted names of more recent American Generations–since 1913.

* The Lost Generation
1919 – 1931

The Lost Generation was a term originally used to identify a group of American literary expatriates living in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s; it is now used more generally to describe the generation of young people who came of age in the United States during and shortly after World War I.

* The Silent Generation
1924 – 1945

The Silent Generation was the generation born between the two World Wars, who were too young to join the service when World War II started. Many had fathers who served in World War I.

* The Baby Boomers
1945 – 1961.

* Generation Jones (sometimes called “Tweeners”)
1954 – 1964

U.S. social commentator Jonathan Pontell identified the existence of this generation and coined the term “Generation Jones” for it. Generation Jones has been referred to as a heretofore lost generation between the Baby boomers and Generation X, since prior to the popularization of Pontell’s theory, its members were included with either the Boomers or Xers. The connotations of the name “Generation Jones” include:

* a large, anonymous generation
* the slang term “jonesin,” which refers here to the unrequited craving felt by this generation of unfulfilled expectations.

* The Beat Generation
1957 – 1963

The Beat Generation is a term used to describe both a group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired (later sometimes called “beatniks”).

* Generation X
1962 – 1976.

* Generation Y
1977 – 1990
Some group Generation Y from 1980 to 1994.

* Generation Z
1996 – present

The term has been used to refer to today’s pre-teens (born after 1996), but is used more often to refer to people born after the year 2000. Both refer to “the first generation to be born into a digital world”.

Okay, we’ll confess: this was just an excuse to ask the following question and answer it with the following cartoon.

You ask why “Y” ?

A caricaturist explains it eloquently below…

At least the reader got a list of American Generations from 1913.

by Mondoreb
hat tip: Scott, Vickie
image: journal de quebec
Sources:
* American Generations
* List of United States Generations
* Strauss and Howe


Back to DBKP/Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
Also posted at DBKP at Blogger.