On January 6, 1941, the Greatest Generation gave voice to its founding principles, the Four Freedoms: Freedom from want and from fear. Freedom of speech and religion. These were the democratic aims that helped beat the Great Depression, defeat the Axis Powers in World War II, and turn the United States into the strongest and richest nation in history --- and they remain the most significant legacy of America’s most progressive generation. Despite a powerful, reactionary opposition, the men and women of the Greatest Generation made America freer, more equal, and more democratic than ever before. Since the 1970s, the political right has fought to contain or reverse middle class prosperity and democratic rights for workers, women, and minorities.

In this eye-opening account, scholar and advocate Harvey Kaye recalls the full story of this generation’s extraordinary struggles and accomplishments. By making America, in FDR’s words, “fairly radical for a generation,” the Greatest Generation had their true rendezvous with destiny. And Kaye convinces that to honor them, it is time for another generation of Americans to take up again the fight for the Four Freedoms, before it is too late.