Generation - Definition and Overview

Generations redirects here. For the soap opera, please see Generations (TV series)

Generation is the act of producing offspring, or procreation. It is also the act of bringing something into being (such as electrical generation and cryptographic code generation). A generation can also be a stage or degree in the succession of natural descent (such as grandfather, father, and son are three generations) or stages of successive improvement in the development of something, such as computers.

A generation can also represent all the people born at about the same time, called a generational cohort (see demographics). Historians hold differing opinions as to what extent dividing history into generations is useful or an improper over-generalization.

William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book Generations list the generations of America. Their definition of "generation" is as follows: A cohort-group (all persons born in a limited span of consecutive years) whose length approximates the span of a phase of life (about 22 years) and whose boundaries are fixed by peer personality (a generational persona recognized and determined by common age location, common beliefs and behavior, and perceived membership in a common generation).

Related articles

• The Liberty Generation
• The Republican Generation
• The Compromise Generation
• The Transcendental Generation
• The Gilded Generation
• The Progressive Generation
• The Missionary Generation
• The Lost Generation
• The Interbellum Generation
• The G.I. Generation
• The Silent Generation
• The Baby Boomers
• Generation Jones
• The Baby Busters
• Generation X
• Generation Y
• Generation Z

See also

• The Beat Generation
• The Stolen Generation