How the second world war shaped the sons of its soldiers

The 80th anniversary of VJ Day today marks the passing of the generation that took part in the second world war. The few surviving veterans must now be a hundred years old, or virtually so. They are departing; most have already left. This seems an appropriate moment to reflect upon the next generation, those whose fathers fought in the war and who grew up in its shadow.

Much has been written about the luck of the ‘baby boomers’, those born in the two decades after the war, who benefitted from post-war prosperity, buying houses cheaply and seeing their values soar. Later generations have envied their affluence. But less has been written about their mindset, which was so much shaped by the recent past. One might argue that as children, boomers were inculcated with one set of values, which a