Greatest Generation
After the war, this generation produced many more children than earlier generations. Over 76 million babies were born between 1946 and 1964. The G.I. Bill helped the many veterans in this generation. The government paid for their education in colleges, universities, and trade schools. It gave them loans for many purposes, and helped them buy houses. Because they were richer, many people in this generation moved their families into the suburbs. They largely promoted more conservative ideas as the country faced the threat of the Cold War and a Second Red Scare. Some were again called to serve in the Korean War together with the Silent Generation. The first member of their generation to be elected president, John F. Kennedy, began a Space Race against the Soviet Union. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, promoted a controversial "Great Society" policy. Research professor of sociology Glen Holl Elder, Jr., an important figure in the development of life course theory, wrote Children of the Great Depression (1974), "the first longitudinal study of a Great Depression cohort." Elder followed 167 people born in California between 1920 and 1921 and "traced the impact of Depression and wartime experiences from the early years to middle age. Most of these 'children of the Great Depression' fared unusually well in their adult years". They came out of the hard times of the Great Depression "with an ability to know how to survive and make do and solve problems.”