THE FOURTH TURNING: AN AMERICAN PROPHECY By William Strauss & Neil Howe


President Trump’s Svengali, Steve Bannion, cites The Fourth Turning (1997) in the development of his world-view. I decided to read The Fourth Turning to try to understand the mind-set of the White House’s chief strategist. The subtitle of The Fourth Turning says: “What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous With Destiny.” Sounds a lot like Isaac Asimov’s “psychohistory.” As you might expect The Fourth Turning predicts Bad Things will happen if we don’t get our act together. Strauss and Howe spend a great deal of their book showing “historical cycles” and then extrapolating to the future. Although The Fourth Turning deals with historical trends, I’m unconvinced those trends actually predict our future. Strauss and Howe miss the opioid crisis, the health care crisis, the shooting of black men crisis, etc. GRADE: C
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Winter Comes Again
Part I-Seasons
Seasons of Time
Seasons of Life
Cycles of History
Gray Champions
Part II-Turnings
The First Turning-American High, 1946-1964
The Second Turning-Consciousness Revolution, 1964-1984
The Third Turning-Culture Wars, 1984-2005?
Fourth Turnings in History; A Fourth Turning Prophecy
Part Three-Preparations
Preparing for the Fourth Turning
The Eternal Return
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

18 thoughts on “THE FOURTH TURNING: AN AMERICAN PROPHECY By William Strauss & Neil Howe

  1. mary mason

    Bad things are happening now, brought on by the current administration and the GOP’s lack of concern for anyone but the wealthy. people who voted for 45 won’t wake up until they are directly affected, and even then they’re still for him (steel workers who didn’t seem to object that he used chinese steel, people who work in manufacturing who didn’t care that his MAGA crap was made in china, not the US)

    Reply
  2. Deb

    Thanks for reading this so we don’t have to George–it must have been both a depressing and an obvious read. Books like this always seem to decry the growing political and monetary power of women and minorities and claim that things would be better if only those man-hating feminists, uppity people of color, and mindless liberals would just get with the program (the program always being some top-down authoritarian system). Blech!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Deb, the Clouds of Doom rise from THE FOURTH TURNING. It presents a bleak view of the world. Steve Bannion is certainly going to the Dark Side after reading this book.

      Reply
  3. Jeff Meyerson

    What Deb said.

    Apparently, the Republicans’ cunning plan (can’t you see Black Adder, Percy and Baldrick rubbing their hands together), is a provision that their “cost cutting” health care plan won’t kick in for SIX YEARS! This was, people like Hatch and Grassley and McCain and the rest of the geriatric set will have gone to their Last Reward or nursing home or something.

    Genius.

    Not!

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  4. Fred Blosser

    “Psycho history” indeed. George, are these the guys who “predict” that American history revolves around 80-year cycles, on the dubious proposition that the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression occurred roughly 80 years apart? It already seems like 80 years since January 20. The daily news of violence, intolerance, and global unrest inflamed by insane tweets from the WH is truly disturbing.

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  5. wolf

    George, you mean Steve Bannon, the man from breitbart?
    Horrible people – and worse than liars – namely stupid liars!

    All my friends in Europe and the people from the USA i know agree with you here – so I always wonder what kind of people are these “Trumpistas” and doomsayers?

    I know only one guy from DC who is for Trump – but he’s very afraid of Putin on the other hand, believes even that Putin controls the NYT etc.
    When I was younger I had high hopes for the world developing, especially after the Cold War ended and “Communism” fell because it was unworkable – now I’m not so sure.

    PS:
    Just read a few stories and their debunking on snopes.com – the amount of conspitacy theories (I call them constipation theories …) that go around and are believed – crazy!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Prashant, I can agree trends actually predict our Future. But, we’re living at a time of Fake News and Alternate Facts. It’s hard to get a straight answer…or the Truth!

      Reply

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