“To everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under Heaven.”

That’s from a song with music and lyrics by Pete Seeger and based closely on  Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in the Old Testament. I always loved the song. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn!_Turn!_Turn!

chttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastes_3

The 4th Turning: What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End
by Neil Howe
2023 / 587 pgs
Read by the author 20h 29m
Rating: 8 / history – sociology?
(Both read and listened) 

It’s been used again by William Strauss and David Howe for their books about “generational theory”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss–Howe_generational_theory

Howe tells us that we’re due for a 4th “turning” for “every purpose under heaven.” At least that’s how I read this book, The Fourth Turning.  He and William Strauss wrote several books dealing with their “generational theory of history” before Strauss died in 2007.  

I’ve always been interested in the idea of patterns in history, but with this one it felt like I was reading Nostradamus or something because the whole thrust, from the title on, is “what’s coming next?”   That’s how it felt at first anyway. But maybe Howe is one of those historians who wants to create some kind of “unified theory of history.” That’s fortune telling via astrology or shamans to me, but … who knows? Howe might have something…  And the book does end with what’s coming next in “Part Three: Coming of Spring” so it’s not a grim, doomsayer’s tale. Parts are redolent of Steven Pinker.

First though, there’s “Part One – the Seasons of History” which includes chapters on Time, Life, American History, and Complexities…  Howe goes back to the Arthurian Generation of 1433-1460 and the Humanist Generation (which I just read about in Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell).  He goes through the time cycles (Saeculua – the plural of saeculum) in these Chapters:  Reformation, the New World, the Revolutionary, the Civil War, Great Power, and finally Millennial – with 4 generation per Chapter.

 Then there’s “Part Two; Climax of Winter,” which fills in the details about what we’re going through now.. And after that there’s “Part Three: the Coming of Spring.” 

Some of this got kind of crazy and I’ll have to read it again.  It’s laid out here though – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory

And after I got past the midway point I got interested in the way he described all the different generations of our more current times. I think this is what Howe organized it because starting at “Part Two “Climax of Winter,” and Chapter 6, “A Winter Chronology,”  I started seeing my Baby Boomer place and that of my kids (X’ers) and my mother (a G.I.) and even my grandmother (a Missionary)  not to neglect the up and coming grandkids (a Millennial and a Homeward).  

I’ve watched the impact of the Boomers since I could read the newspaper about how the elementary schools were impacted by the of Baby Boomers and how the toys, TV and movies were all for us from Daniel Boone caps to Hula Hoops right down to Barbie Dolls.   

I may not be entirely sold on the whole “generational theory” – in trying for detail it gets quite convoluted and I think he missed a few items. For instance the Boomrs getting the birth control pill in 1960/’61 or so which freed us up to rebel and live life to the fullest while the war in Vietnam had the draft numbers so we smoked pot and looked for that religion we’d lost in the suburbs. Got through college and married and had babies, anyway. No wonder we were a bit wild in our search for freedom.

I did get a different perspective on how selfish we really were, though.  (Fwiw, the author, Howe, is a Boomer.) 

And I really appreciated some insights into my kids, to say nothing of my parents and their parents. Wow – well no wonder Grandma was how she was – and my Mom, the G.I.! The grandkids are so sweet and special. I’ve always thought the upcoming generations, the Millennials and Homewards, were sweet.

The Boomers were NOT usually sweet – lol! I may think my case is different but we are ALL formed to some degree by our times and environments and our places in it.

The first I heard about this kind of overarching theory of history was in college when Oswald Spengler’s name came up. He, a German of the 19th and early 20th centuries,  theorized about civilizations being organic and having a Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Howe uses the term Winter – first on page 50 but then he almost overdoes the idea – (Do a “search” for “winter,” if you’re on a Kindle.). Spengler’s most famous work is The Decline of the West (1918).   

But there are many such theories known as “social cycle theories.”  This site:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_cycle_theory lists and describes a number of them including the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory or “Fourth Turning theory” which is mainly a theory based on the US. Howe touches on the theory of Ibn Khaldun’s (14th century) which sounds interesting, but none of the others.  

As I said, I have a few bones to pick with The 4th Turning as described in the book but I suppose they’re minor in the overall scheme of things.  

If you’re interested in this sort of thing it’s probably a relatively book – if not you’ll likely be bored out of your skull.  LOL I think I might read it again to see if I can make a bit more sense of the theory itself.