Rating: 
Summary: Definitely worth reading
Review: I highly recommend this book if you are a reader that's interested in exploring the various themes that are the constant undercurrent of human history and civilization. No, this book will not predict what will happen over the next 100 years in minute detail. If that's what you're looking for, then by all means, call the psychic hotline. But the idea of history being cyclical is sound, and in this reader's humble opinion, common sense. Technological advances aside, history has proven rather conclusively that human beings remain basically the same. And I believe these authors are, in their scholarly way, simply reminding us of that. "The more things change, the more things stay the same" is demonstrated to be true in the book. And although I don't think that this theory, or any other theory is without error, I do believe that the authors ideas are definetly worth considering as we enter a new millenium.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful ideas, Incredibly broad, Worth reading
Review: I picked up "The Fourth Turning" four years ago at a public garage sale and was captivated by its prediction. After reading chapter after chapter of amazing parallels in past generations across history I knew that the authors were on to something and it felt so evident that there really was a period of life-shattering crisis up for us in the near future; it was evident enough after reflecting on the thought that anything has to grow through cycles of change, decay and rebirth. When the planes hit the towers on September 11, 2001, I was convinced that this it indeed and enjoyed a special moment of silence reading back over my book as I was completely sure by now we were in for twenty years of a changed mood rather than just a single shocking event. Eventually the shock from September 11 disippated, the months went by, and I realized we were still in the Third Turning after all. But still I'll never forget the exciting prophecies of an era of crisis that "The Fourth Turning" has in offer. And that still have a chance, and a destiny, to come true in not too many years.
Rating:
Summary: Sweeping, compelling, and quite readable
Review: I picked up a copy of "The Fourth Turning" because to refresh myself on the generational differences of donors. I was hoping to help a colleague wrestle with how to apply fundraising techniques with attention to these cohorts. Having read the authors' 13th Gen a few years ago, I knew this would be an erudite review. I got what I was looking for and much more! "The Fourth Turning" is actually a compelling look at human history, especially Western history since the middle of the fifteenth century!Howe and Strauss have amazingly taken the most recent 20th century generations (GI, Silent, Boomer, Xer, and Millennial) and found corresponding generations for the last few hundred years. From this, they've developed a convincing rubric of generational archetypes-GIs and Millennials are the "Hero," Silents are the "Artist," Boomers are the "Prophet," and Xers are the "Nomad." Moreover, they've revisited the millennia old theory that time moves through seasons in a cyclical pattern, one that corresponds with the seasons of the year. The post-WWII era was our "High" or spring; the Consciousness Revolution was our "Awakening" or summer; the 80's and 90's was our "Unraveling" or fall; and we're currently headed for our "Crisis" or winter. They chose to label the seasons "turnings" and the time encompassing the four turnings as the "saecula," a label used by the ancients that roughly corresponds to a century. With an amazing attention to detail, a scholarly eye to history, and a wonderfully readable writing style, Howe and Strauss show the interplay of the generational archetypes and the turnings. For example, they point to the similarities of the spiritual emphasis of the 1960s and 1970s with the Transcendentalists of the 1800s, the Great Awakening of the 1700s, and the Puritan Awakening of the 1600s, and the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s! "The Fourth Turning" will definitely affect the way you view history as well as the events of today. Though written in 1997, they illustrate "highly unlikely" scenarios that might precipitate the coming Crisis such as: "A global terrorist group blows up an aircraft and announces it possesses portable nuclear weapons. The United States and its allies launch a preemptive strike. The terrorists threaten to retaliate against an American city..."! While I don't know if we're currently into the Crisis or not, I do know that "The Fourth Turning" is a must read for anyone trying to raise money in today's economic environment. Not only will the savvy fundraiser ferret out ways to frame their case for the different generations, she will also see how different turnings may affect fundraising efforts. If we are indeed heading for a fourth turning, and Howe and Strauss make that highly believable, I think we in the nonprofit world are uniquely situated to help our cultures ride out this winter and successfully enter the spring. Although full of grim warnings, "The Fourth Turning" is a hope-filled book well worth reading. CONTENTS: 1. Winter Comes Again PART I: Seasons
2. Seasons of Time
3. Seasons of Life
4. Cycles of History
5. Gray Champions PART II: Turnings
6. The First Turning: American High (1946-1964)
7. The Second Turning: Consciousness Revolution (1964-1984)
8. The Third Turning: Culture Wars (1984-2005?)
9. Fourth Turnings in History
10. A Fourth Turning Prophecy PART III: Preparations
11. Preparing for the Fourth Turning
12. The Eternal Return Acknowledgements
Notes
Index of Names
Rating: 
Summary: Junk History/Science
Review: I picked up a copy of "The Fourth Turning" because to refresh myself on the generational differences of donors. I was hoping to help a colleague wrestle with how to apply fundraising techniques with attention to these cohorts. Having read the authors' 13th Gen a few years ago, I knew this would be an erudite review. I got what I was looking for and much more! "The Fourth Turning" is actually a compelling look at human history, especially Western history since the middle of the fifteenth century! Howe and Strauss have amazingly taken the most recent 20th century generations (GI, Silent, Boomer, Xer, and Millennial) and found corresponding generations for the last few hundred years. From this, they've developed a convincing rubric of generational archetypes-GIs and Millennials are the "Hero," Silents are the "Artist," Boomers are the "Prophet," and Xers are the "Nomad." Moreover, they've revisited the millennia old theory that time moves through seasons in a cyclical pattern, one that corresponds with the seasons of the year. The post-WWII era was our "High" or spring; the Consciousness Revolution was our "Awakening" or summer; the 80's and 90's was our "Unraveling" or fall; and we're currently headed for our "Crisis" or winter. They chose to label the seasons "turnings" and the time encompassing the four turnings as the "saecula," a label used by the ancients that roughly corresponds to a century. With an amazing attention to detail, a scholarly eye to history, and a wonderfully readable writing style, Howe and Strauss show the interplay of the generational archetypes and the turnings. For example, they point to the similarities of the spiritual emphasis of the 1960s and 1970s with the Transcendentalists of the 1800s, the Great Awakening of the 1700s, and the Puritan Awakening of the 1600s, and the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s! "The Fourth Turning" will definitely affect the way you view history as well as the events of today. Though written in 1997, they illustrate "highly unlikely" scenarios that might precipitate the coming Crisis such as: "A global terrorist group blows up an aircraft and announces it possesses portable nuclear weapons. The United States and its allies launch a preemptive strike. The terrorists threaten to retaliate against an American city..."! While I don't know if we're currently into the Crisis or not, I do know that "The Fourth Turning" is a must read for anyone trying to raise money in today's economic environment. Not only will the savvy fundraiser ferret out ways to frame their case for the different generations, she will also see how different turnings may affect fundraising efforts. If we are indeed heading for a fourth turning, and Howe and Strauss make that highly believable, I think we in the nonprofit world are uniquely situated to help our cultures ride out this winter and successfully enter the spring. Although full of grim warnings, "The Fourth Turning" is a hope-filled book well worth reading. CONTENTS: 1. Winter Comes Again PART I: Seasons
2. Seasons of Time
3. Seasons of Life
4. Cycles of History
5. Gray Champions PART II: Turnings
6. The First Turning: American High (1946-1964)
7. The Second Turning: Consciousness Revolution (1964-1984)
8. The Third Turning: Culture Wars (1984-2005?)
9. Fourth Turnings in History
10. A Fourth Turning Prophecy PART III: Preparations
11. Preparing for the Fourth Turning
12. The Eternal Return Acknowledgements
Notes
Index of Names
Rating:
Summary: Think-tank work
Review: I wasn't looking for a bunch of rhetoric of the conservative, "bring back tradition!" ilk, but this is what I got. The Fourth Turning, purport to be about historical cycles though it might, is nonetheless filled with a prescriptive traditionalist/virtuecrat mixed with puritanism and a dash of Tipper Gore stance. Bring back values like honor and duty, observe "decency" in your personal conduct, more discipline for the kids, make sure society develops tighter standards, don't let go of the Traditional virtues, get violence and vulgarity out of our entertainment. The authors seem to be on a quest to eradicate four-letter words society has deemed "evil" and clean up our popular entertainment. When it's not talking about early historical eras, the book is bemoaning the ever-branching diversity of choices and lifestyles in modern life or criticizing the "edginess" of Generation X pop culture. All the theory about cycles and generations, the historical parallels, the warning that a new era of crisis is just to come, is just an excuse to tell readers to prepare for a crisis era that may or may not be coming by celebrating the importance of authority, ceasing unconventional behavior in an era that will demand conformity, and settling down to focus on family values. Institutions are actually advised by this book, for instance, to set up as strict a regime of rules, zero tolerance and demands on conduct and dress on our kids as possible to make sure that children can grow up to be a good "Hero" generation. The theory about generations and "turnings" itself didn't really convince me, and I get the feeling inside that the quotes and events for early historical generations were selected out of a sea of many, just to find a few examples that will make the generations seem to fit into the pattern. Even with the living generations, many of their assertions don't seem to ring quite true. For instance, I fail to see any evidence that our "Thirteenth Generation" (which they call their generation born between 1961 and 1981) has grown up with remarkable survival skills; and the authors describe their Silent Generation (1925-1942) as having been conformist and risk-averse young adults during their coming of age era to fit them into the pattern of the "Artist" generational type; they assert this lifecycle for all the Silent generation and for ALL Artist generations throughout, with the Silents holding their heads down compliantly as the most un-rebellious generation since the Progressive Generation (1843-1859) -- all this for the peers of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Dick Clark, Don Martin and Hugh Hefner. Nor would I expect the Thirteenth Generation to grow up to be as survivalist as the Gilded Generation (1822-1842) because they're both in the "Nomad generation" position in this cycle, when the Gilded had to grow up in a still-mostly-rural America with an unsettled and wildlife-filled Gold Rush world. Worse yet, the portraits they paint of the four recurring generational archetypes in their theory sound like parodies: the authors characterize the Prophets as self-righteous, Final, colossally complacent Gods engaged in their apocalyptic duel of Doom, filled with sanctimonious rage; the Nomads as keen, sharp-toothed, survivalist, ratty cads off the street with all the hardness of a Dickens orphan walking by in ripped clothes and drooling at a chance to cheat someone out of a good deal; the Heroes as lockstep, march-to-duty, scoutlike knee-jerk order-followers just itching to die for their country in war; and the Artists as soft, washy, talk-about-our-feelings, emotional marshmallows with all the huggable indecisiveness and unproactiveness of a high school guidance counselor, willing to let people walk all over them. And the birthyears they assign to generations have nothing in common by the time you get from one year of the boundary to another. For instance, the authors set the boundaries for their "Thirteenth Generation" between 1961 and 1981 (but not 1960 or 1982). How does a person born in 1961 have ANYTHING in common with one born in 1981, either in personality or in location and role in history? Of course many theories will run into a FEW problems like this, but this one seems whipped up to sound just convincing enough to sell an authoritarian ideology.
Rating:
Summary: Good History; Interesting & Scary Thesis
Review: It's been a while since I gave attention to Ortega y Gasset's and Julian Marias's generations theory, and I found Strauss & Howe's application quite interesting. The book seems an easy read -- I would expect to find such theories in a rather dry tome on the philosophy of history. That makes me hesitate -- does this theory come together too easily. And I'm always a bit (well, more than a bit) nervous about books that are so given to prophecy. I'm of the "the one way to assure that something will not happen is to declare it ordained by history" school. Despite those reservations, I found reading _The Fourth Turning_ more than worth my time. The charts are good; the popular-level history seems reasonably accurate; the thesis is sophisticated and intriguing. And scary: if we allow ourselves to be controlled by the patterns Strauss & Howe have observed in the past, it appears there will be a very nasty "turning" within our lifespan.
Rating:
Summary: Good History; Interesting & Scary Thesis
Review: It's been a while since I gave attention to Ortega y Gasset's and Julian Marias's generations theory, and I found Strauss & Howe's application quite interesting. The book seems an easy read -- I would expect to find such theories in a rather dry tome on the philosophy of history. That makes me hesitate -- does this theory come together too easily. And I'm always a bit (well, more than a bit) nervous about books that are so given to prophecy. I'm of the "the one way to assure that something will not happen is to declare it ordained by history" school. Despite those reservations, I found reading _The Fourth Turning_ more than worth my time. The charts are good; the popular-level history seems reasonably accurate; the thesis is sophisticated and intriguing. And scary: if we allow ourselves to be controlled by the patterns Strauss & Howe have observed in the past, it appears there will be a very nasty "turning" within our lifespan.
Rating: 
Summary: Historical Prophecy
Review: Member of the 13th Generation? Millenial Generation? The Boomers? Care to track your own development through the maze of historical events to find out where you've been, and more importantly, where you are going? Where our country is going? Then pick this book up immediately. Simply put, the "Fourth Turning" is THE most important book written in the last twenty years, and a book that should be required reading. Strauss and Howe apparently have devoted their lives to the study of history and the development of generations in societies. The book is loaded, and I mean, loaded with historical references, some of which I wasn't familiar with until now. By looking at these events, and more importantly, looking at the people that went along with those events, Strauss and Howe noticed some recurring patterns in generations over the centuries. Apply this pattern to our country, and to our future, they have correctly predicted that we are headed for a "Fourth Turning", a time of great criss and peril. Normally, I shun books that people claim to have "visions of the future" involved with them. They are frequently erroneous and based on the whims of the author. However, "The Fourth Turning" is different. By basing their theories of the future on past events, they offer support and credence to their thoughts. The effect is both enlightening and chilling, but it is one that we simply cannot ignore. I found every single page of their book fascinating as a study or recent history and future history. Also, I personally found self-enlightenment in reading about the generation in which I belong, the long lost "Gen X" crowd, or the title they label it, "13th". It explains a lot about the world in which I was raised, and the world we live in today. One chilling fact: this book was written in 1997, and the authors predicts a calamatous and unimaginable event in the early part of the 2000s that would signify the start of the Fourth Turning. Who can read this book and not think of September 11th? Don't delay. Read this book. We are entering a winter in our times, and those people prepared with that knowledge certainly will have a more steady base in the fourth turning to come.
Rating:
Summary: The Finest Socio-History Book Ever Written!
Review: Rarely in life, a reader may stumble upon a work which stunningly redirects one's thinking about an entire subject. After reading such a work, every facet of that subject neatly "falls into place" where it never had before. These works tend to be highly controversial as well as thought provoking. Strauss and Howe's "The Fourth Turning" is one such book. This book is so revolutionary that my entire view of American history has been irrevocably changed by it. I have tested its theories of generational change in discussions with my parents, grandparents, and children and found them to be absolutely true. We are all of differing generations, and our outlook and attitudes show it. When the next Great Crisis comes, we can thank the authors for at least having warned some of us that it was coming. Their cyclical theory simply patterns after life itself. Life doesn't simply and slowly improve over time. Catastrophes occur suddenly and they forever change the future. All of our lives show crisis which suddenly and dramatically change us. Even the history of our planet has undergone sudden and dramatic catastrophes which dramatically altered the course of life on earth. Why should the history of our nation be any different? To those who believe this book is trash, come back and reread it in twenty years and you will have been proven wrong. This book is absolutely one of the best books that I have ever read and deserves the highest recommendation possible.
Rating:
Summary: Winter came early this saeculum....
Review: Somehow I missed this book when it first came out- too much was happening in my personal life I guess. Yet, I'm glad that I waited until now to read it, for it serves to verify much that I came to discover on my own from both personal experience and from reading such diverse works as those of the Taoist Sages and Marcus Aurelius. For this is a book of Great Cycles, rooted in the ancient traditional concept of large and small recurrent cycles to human history, as well as to nature. This book speaks of the Saeculum, to use the ancient term, the great cycles that stretch approximately the span of one long human life. There have been seven of these in the last 500 years of "modern" history. Each of these large cycles is divided into four parts, or "turnings." Think of them as generational seasons. And then each of these generational turnings is associated with one of the four classical human archetypes (prophet, nomad, hero, and artist.) When you examine the individual Saeculi you realize that everything has happened before. Time is neither uniquely chaotic, nor is it linear. The same pattern of growth, maturation, entropy, and rebirth occur again and again. The historical documentation is exhaustive- this book serves the secondary function of being an excellent review of Anglo-American history. It is more than that, though- it is a predictor of what to expect in the rapidly approaching winter or Fourth Turning. Of course, it now looks like winter came too early, for we are trying to cope with it using the techniques and tools of the Third Turning of unraveling and culture war. What we need are the elder statesman or prophets that have guided and inspired us through all our previous periods of crisis. We need our next generation of heroes to come of age. We need time for Merlin to find and teach Arthur. But first, we need the return of the Gray Champion to herald the age. One other thing, before one becomes too comfortable with the idea that we've always come out of these cycles stronger than the one before, it is best to reflect that Fourth Turnings mean Total War- and we have nuclear devices and material in global abundance.... By the way, the excellent charts and tables make the concepts in the text very easy to rapidly digest.
|
