The Fourth Turning - Neil Howe (Bill Cooper Extras)

The premise of the generational theory Strauss and Howe put forward is that history, just like nature and just like human life, is cyclical and seasonal. The approximately 20-year period between turnings is similar to the amount of time that a human experiences before passing into a new phase of life. These phases of life include childhood, young adulthood, midlife, and elderhood. Old generations also pass, and new generations are born within that time frame. Each new generation is born during one of the four turnings of the saeculum, which causes that generation to have a specific archetype, or persona, that is shaped by the mood of the nation at that time. The four recurring generational archetypes include “prophets” (born during a high), “nomads” (born during an awakening), “heroes” (born during the unraveling), and “artists” (born during a crisis).