 It is the young men born into the false prosperity of the 1920s and brought up in the bitter realities of the depression of the 30s that this is about. Stephen Ambrose's book about D-Day. The literature they read as youngsters was anti-war and cynical, portraying patriots as suckers, slackers. None of them wanted to be part of another war. They wanted to be throwing baseballs, not hand grenades, shooting .22s at rabbits, not M1s at other young men. But when the test came, when freedom had to be fought for or abandoned, they fought and they saved the world.