The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with DestinyNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Discover the game-changing theory of the cycles of history and what past generations can teach us about living through times of upheaval—with deep insights into the roles that Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials have to play. First comes a High, a period of confident expansion. Next comes an Awakening, a time of spiritual exploration and rebellion. Then comes an Unraveling, in which individualism triumphs over crumbling institutions. Last comes a Crisis—the Fourth Turning—when society passes through a great and perilous gate in history. William Strauss and Neil Howe will change the way you see the world—and your place in it. With blazing originality, The Fourth Turning illuminates the past, explains the present, and reimagines the future. Most remarkably, it offers an utterly persuasive prophecy about how America’s past will predict what comes next. Strauss and Howe base this vision on a provocative theory of American history. The authors look back five hundred years and uncover a distinct pattern: Modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting about the length of a long human life, each composed of four twenty-year eras—or “turnings”—that comprise history’s seasonal rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and rebirth. Illustrating this cycle through a brilliant analysis of the post–World War II period, The Fourth Turning offers bold predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for this rendezvous with destiny. |
Contents
1 | |
Seasons of Time | 25 |
Seasons of Life | 53 |
Cycles of History | 91 |
Gray Champions | 139 |
American High 19461964 | 145 |
Consciousness Revolution 19641984 | 171 |
Culture Wars 19842005? | 201 |
Fourth Turnings in History | 254 |
A Fourth Turning Prophecy | 272 |
Preparing for the Fourth Turning | 305 |
The Eternal Return | 329 |
Acknowledgments | 337 |
367 | |
Common terms and phrases
American Revolution ancient archetypes Awakening Awakening-era Baby become began birth Boomers born called century child Civil climax colonial coming of age Consciousness Revolution Crisis Culture Wars cycle cyclical decade economic ekpyrosis elder emerged entering childhood entering elderhood entering midlife entering young adulthood eration Etruscans feel four archetypes Fourth Turning future global Glorious Revolution Gray Champion High High-era Hillary Clinton historian human institutions John kids King late later leaders less life-cycle linear lives look Lost Millennials Missionary modern mood moral myths nation natural Newsweek Nomad Oh-Ohs old age older parents peers phase political president progress Puritan Puritan Awakening quaternities Reformation Republicans rhythm rising role saecular saeculum seasons Second Turning Silent social society spiritual Third Great Awakening Third Turning tion today's U.S. history Unraveling Unraveling-era V-J Day values William World War II young adults younger youth