In the authors' theory, American and British (though mostly American) society goes moves along through a series of four seasons, creating a succession of four archetypal generation-types. Also, as history makes people, people make history, and the constellation of generations interprets the events in their world, reacting in the form of the four seasons. Tracing this march of generations across history, they admirably show the past is indeed prologue, and America is heading towards another seasonal change, as the nation moves once again into a Crisis mentality.

Now, the first complaint that is liable to be leveled against this book is that it posits an inescapably mechanistic view of history. However, the authors are careful to show that human nature can break their suggested cycle, and that it has happened in the past.

Overall, I found this to be a very convincing book, one that has revolutionized my entire view of American history! Yes, I am a convert to the Generations view of history, and cannot wait to see how things are likely to change in the near future. If you want a book that will revolutionize your whole way of looking at history, then I highly recommend that you get this book. It will challenge you and make sure that you never look at events the same.

For me, the book said that my life would kinda suck, but to take comfort because the next generation after me will have a life that _Really Sucks_. No surprise there. Tell me something that I don't already know !!!

A major stumbling block in there hypothesis is the fact that they cannot explain why their four generation saeculum skips a generation during the time of the civil war.

None the less their basic assertions about the cycles (perhaps spirals or helix is more apt)of generational attitudes and tendencies is insightful and interesting.

Without meaning to demean this effort (more than I have above) I found myself reminiscing about Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" twin trilogies (science fiction) in which he posited (in the 1950's yet!) that human history was predictable through a combination of statistics and psychology. Personally, I believe in this conceptually, but actual execution is a long way off. The Fourth Turning has tended to affirm that belief, but does not convince me that they can execute on predictions -- as other reviewers have said, their predicitions are incredibly vague.