As I said, this book is not all history. It is perhaps only at most 20 percent history; the book touches on and mentions historical events but rarely goes into explaining what they are. A person with a shallow history knowledge base would find this book confusing. The rest of the book is a proposed social science theory that throughout all of the US's history there are four types of generations cycling to create a particular, unique constellation of characters on the US at any given moment. The four generational types each have identifying qualities they use to filter current events and happenings within them and in their world. The authors use the 4-generation type model to show how sometimes we experience history "repeating" itself. Huge amounts of data have been compiled into this work and organized in a way that even someone without a Masters Degree in History could work through this book. If you take on the challenge of reading this book, don't lose heart in the first few chapters which focus on the theory of the 4-generational cycles; what it is, how it works, why the authors feel it fits over other models of generational theory. Once you get into the second part it will flow much faster. The second part breaks American History, from the Puritans (starting at the beginning of their lives in Europe) through a "prediction" of the future up to 2069 (I'll talk about this prediction in a bit), into five distinct cycles that have occurred and are happening right now. At anytime during these cycles there are four generations playing key roles; one in early childhood imbedding experiences and nurture/non-nurture of older generations, one in rising adulthood beginning to assert activity that directly impacts the shape of history (sometimes, especially in the case of those who are sent off to a war, shaping themselves), one in midlife adulthood at the political and social zenith of their strength and influence, and one in elderhood holding onto glory from past days and serving as stewards and wisdom to the youths now coming to power. And while there are always four generations moving, they are of four different generational types, explained in significant depth in the first part of the book (so don't skip it!), and the interaction between all four types of generations depending on where they are at a point in their life cycles, has determined the cause of American history, its major and minor events and how each different generation views them and reacts (or not). Don't get glued into the boundary years for the generational cohorts, even the author explains there are outliers within the group-the study just doesn't focus on the outliers. The present for the book, published in 1991 (the last president in office at press time for this book is George H.W.Bush and there is no talk of upcoming elections or candidates), ends with my supposed generation, the Millenials, in youth. I won't give away the future the authors predict. I don't want in any way to make it seem like the authors are fortune tellers looking into their crystal ball to come up with specific events. There is nothing specific; Strauss and Howe just project their model and make suggestions of vague happenings of what the next cycle might include (awakening, outer-driven social motion, secular crisis, inner-driven social introversion). It is a book worth diving into and giving it some time to read about the varying perspectives of those closest to us (children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents). Why do they not always see what we see? A plausible answer is strongly argued for in this work.
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