The Fourth Turning
The Second Turning is an Awakening, a passionate era of spiritual upheaval, when the civic order comes under attack from a new values regime.
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
As Arthur Wing Pinero has written, “The future is only the past again, entered through another gate.”
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
Yet the great weakness of linear time is that it obliterates time's recurrence and thus cuts people off from the eternal—whether in nature, in each other, or in ourselves. When we deem our social destiny entirely self-directed and our personal lives self-made, we lose any sense of participating in a collective myth larger than ourselves.
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
A Prophet generation is born during a High. A Nomad generation is born during an Awakening. A Hero generation is born during an Unraveling. An Artist generation is born during a Crisis.
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
chaotic time, history has no path.
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
linear time—time as a unique (and usually progressing) story with an absolute beginning and an absolute end.
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
Not long ago, America was more than the sum of its parts. Now, it is less. Around World War II, we were proud as a people but modest as individuals. Fewer than two people in ten said yes when asked, Are you a very important person? Today, more than six in ten say yes. Where we once thought ourselves collectively strong, we now regard ourselves as i... See more
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
If you learned history in the usual linear style, you probably felt a void. Perhaps you yearned for a more personal connection with the past and future, a path through which you could attach a larger drama to your own life experience. Perhaps you yearned for a closer connection to the ancestral wisdom gained by real people who struggled to build th... See more
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
an authentic opportunity to remake man and therein put an end to history.