Would our small home generators be damaged by an EMP ?

Are there brands that would not?

Unlikely

I'm told by people 'in the know' that the EMP thing is possible but greatly exaggerated and would be temporary/momentary.

The invasion of communists should be your real concern. This country will be conquered without nukes my friend.
Edited for spelling

Solar flare is a thing.

If sitting by itself not hooked up to the grid, very unlikely it would be damaged.

Unless it's hooked to a long long line then no....

In Jeff Yago's book on EMP he mentions the Russians' experience that generators exposed to EMP failed not long after being put in service:  

"Multiple Russian nuclear bomb tests over land in 1962 imposed high voltage surges on long utility lines which fed back into the coil windings of several large industrial generators connected to these transmission lines. This resulted in significant damage in the coil windings of these generators as the arcing between the windings caused a breakdown of the dielectric properties of the wire insulation. Months after these nuclear bomb tests were completed, several generators appeared to operate normally when tested, but when the generators were actually put back in service, most generators failed."

Sounds like this would be more a problem for home generators hard connected into the wiring for automatic switchover, as opposed to a portable generator that's not connected to anything.  Yago also posits that a generator's control electronics would be damaged by EMP, but if there is no long wire attached to the unit, I can't see how that would happen.

EMP is not the world killer we imagine.  It has been greatly exaggerated by dozens of novels.  Even if it's hooked up and running, an EMP might shut it off, but it is highly unlikely you wouldn't be able to start it right back up.  

Solar flares would be less likely to damage a generator than an emp.

And the odds of a generator being damaged by an emp is slim.

Plenty of guys have large generators hardwired to the grid and house with auto-transfer systems.  Some of those guys are in this very forum.  Those transfer systems have to be connected to the grid to sense a power failure.  What happens if they get cooked?  I dunno but it can't help things.

Regarding the point that nobody would launch an EMP at the US because of the consequences, there are UNCLASS methods that have been bandied about.  In particular, float a ship with a few containers into the Gulf of Mexico, launch a compact HEMP device that detonates over Omaha, and then scuttle the ship.  It's all over in under 10 minutes.  Who would the US then rain sunshine on?  How would we know who to target?

I'm not saying everyone else is wrong and we're definitely under an EMP threat, I just think that a lot of the counterarguments are based on hopeful thinking, because the consequences are enormous.  I think we have a greater risk of a CME event taking out a chunk of the grid, then the grid's increasing fragility causing cascading failures.

And as always, between the extremes of "it won't happen" and "it's the end for sure" is a wide spectrum of bad situations.

Good question.      I will need to open up my transfer switch and chase a few wires to be certain but a transfer switch only needs a relay to sense power loss.   This is how I handled it on my alarm system.   The 120 volt AC powers the coil on a relay that connects contacts allowing 12 volt DC to tell the alarm that we have power.   The alarm TECHNICALLY never sees the 120 volt AC directly.   So the 120 volts could ramp up to 1000 volts.   It might fry the relay but it shouldn't jump the gap to the contacts of the 12 volt side unless it was way more than 1000 volts.   But what powers the alarm system?   That is a 120 volt AC to 12 volt DC converter.    EMP could get through that way.   The same for the generator.   It has a built in battery charger that is powered (I assume) from the 120 volt AC.   What else is connected to that same circuit?   I will chase that a bit over the weekend to see what I can find.