The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny

NATIONAL 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.

The Four Turnings: A Cycle of History

• First comes a High: A period of confident expansion.
• Next comes an Awakening: A time of spiritual exploration and rebellion.
• Then comes an Unraveling: When individualism triumphs over crumbling institutions.
• Last comes a Crisis—the Fourth Turning: A perilous moment in history when society passes through a great and transformative gate.

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.

A Vision Based on a Bold Theory

Strauss and Howe base this vision on a provocative theory of American history, uncovering a distinct pattern that spans five hundred years. According to their research:

• Modern history moves in cycles, each lasting about the length of a long human life.
• Each cycle is composed of four twenty-year eras, or “turnings,” that reflect history’s seasonal rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and rebirth.

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.