The Worst Generation is character Jenny Alhouse's indictment of her parents' contributions to the contemporary world, their generational short-sighted and selfish degradation of economic and environmental well-being. Her recounting of childhood shows much she is thankful for - a stable, caring home, times kayaking with her father, family trips, a quality education, the benefits of prosperity. But she tells the story from her adulthood, and includes the things she could not see as a child: the economic and environmental plundering and inconsideration imbedded in her upbringing that leave her world unstable, uncivil, and unsafe.