Fourth Turning

A quick fact sheet.

The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy – What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny (1996) | Authors: William Strauss and Neil Howe

Regardless of the intentions of the authors, this book is getting cited by anti-democracy proponents. For example, Steve Bannon is into it.

Notice the book’s structural similarities with Spengler’s The Decline of the West in 1918/1922

  • From Publishers Weekly: “The authors’ simplistic framework makes newspaper astrology look like a pure science. The book’s appeal lies in the way they link an all-embracing theory of history to current strivings for self-actualization and to the average person’s desire for peace and prosperity.”
  • While I myself find this book dangerous, I do like the visual way artist Van Neistat summarizes & clarifies some of the book’s main ideas.

Learn more about this in Benjamin Teitelbaum’s War for Eternity (HarperCollins, 2020)