They saw the growing peril to Britain and the rest of Europe but had no power to do anything about it. Most of them were under fifty; under normal circumstances, they and their contemporaries would now be moving into positions of influence and authority within the government. But there were far too few of them. Theirs was a lost generation, decimated by war. The other young men who likely would have shared their progressive views and their opposition to conciliating the dictators - their brothers, cousins, childhood friends, schoolmates - were lying in graves scattered throughout France and Belgium.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "They saw the growing peril to Britain and the rest of Europe but had no power to do anything about it. Most of them were under fifty; under normal circumstances, they and their contemporaries would now be moving into positions of influence and authority within the government. But there were far too few of them. Theirs was a lost generation, decimated by war. The other young men who likely would have shared their progressive views and their opposition to conciliating the dictators - their brothers, cousins, childhood friends, schoolmates - were lying in graves scattered throughout France and Belgium." in the context of "Lynne Olson, Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, (April 29, 2008), p. 70" to mean that wisdom is timeless.