Generations
by William Strauss, Neil Howe · first published 1991
11mentions
4recommended by
11HN commenters
2008–2022first – last mentioned
36% recommend64% neutral
William Strauss and Neil Howe’s partnership began in the late 1980s when they began writing their first book Generations, which tells the history of America as a succession of generational biographies going back to 1584. Each had written on generational topics [...] The authors’ interest in generations as a broader topic emerged after they met in Washington, D.C., and began discussing the connections between each of their previous work. They wondered why Boomers and G.I.s had developed such different ways of looking at the world, and what it was about these generations’ growing up experienc
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…This is a really great insight, and it reminds me of Ron Suskind's "Without a Doubt", on the "faith-based" presidency of George W. Bush. I think the Strauss and Howe model of cyclical history (see: Generations, The Fourth Turning) is fairly accurate. Third Turnings are characterized by confusion, socioeconomic stagnation/reversion, and rampant inequality; Fourth Turnings, by crisis, hardship and rapid social…
on “Bankers' excessive salaries as predictors of Depression” ↗…the US of all time. Gen X was probably on par with the Greatest Generation in many ways, and Gen Y/Mill are too soon to tell, but certainly appear better than Baby Boomers. Strauss and Howe's book "Generations" or "Fourth Turning" seems pretty reasonable. (http://www.timepage.org/time.html) While I might not push the "redact the boomers" button (maybe...), it would pretty much fix all of the major problems…
on “Peter Thiel & Max Levchin: "Silicon Valley Lacks Radical Innovation"” ↗In Strauss and Howe's book Generations (I highly recommend reading it, if not visiting this Wiki explanation on their theories of social cycles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_(book)), they say very simply that whatever Generation…
Oh god, not Jean Twenge. People, please, please read the Strauss and Howe book (Generations), not Jean Twenge. She makes overly-cranky observations about generations (especially younger ones, like Millennials and Homelanders) without the context of the rest of generational theory. The things…
on “Why are today's teens putting off driving, dating and drinking?” ↗…using their computers to produce it! Now minimalism is old hat. I suspect that Gen Z will make some minor statements against it. But the big disruption won't come for another generation. I recently read Generations by Neil Howe and William Strauss. In the book they make the case that their are 4 archetypes to a generation cycle - Idealist (boomer), Reactive (gen x), Civic (millennial) and Adaptive (gen z). Idealists…
on “Why everything looks the same” ↗…makes you a libertarian; coming of age in the hippy era makes you a leftist, and living through the Great Depression and WWII makes you an authoritarian". I don't endorse everything in it, but the book _Generations_ ( http://www.amazon.com/Generations-History-Americas-Future-15... ) argues something pretty much in this direction. Given that OKC's data is all from a very short period of time, there's no way to…
on “The Democrats Are Doomed, or How A ‘Big Tent’ Can Be Too Big” ↗Arthur Schlesinger Jr’s “The Cycles of American History” “The Forth Turning” or “Generations” by Neil Howe and William Strauss. Although be warned although those books were well received at the time in like 1993 (including a pretty positive review by the N.Y. Times) they are little less ‘academic’…
on “Comcast Tries to Derail Fort Collins Community Broadband” ↗Us 13ers are firmly in control now! Watch out boomers and boomer babies! http://www.amazon.com/Generations-History-Americas-Future-15... "Far more than other generations, 13ers feel that the real world is gearing up to punish them down the road… Elders find it hard to suppress feelings of disappointment over…
on “Forget Gen Y: Gen X is Making Real Change” ↗This Turchin fellow seems to have missed the boat by about 20 years. The book "Generations: The History of America's Future" by Strauss and Howe was published in 1991 and predicted exactly the same thing. It was a bestseller at the time. It's so well known that it's notable on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generatio...…
on “Will the US experience a violent upheaval in 2020? (2012)” ↗Actually the article's author brings up another work by Strauss and Howe, Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584-2069, and strongly denounces it as "pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo". I'm not saying I agree with that (I haven't read that book), I'm just pointing out that the article's…
on “We Need to Ditch Generational Labels” ↗The Strauss & Howe definition is that Millennials were born 1982-2004. Generations typically last 20 years or so, so you're smack in the middle.
on “Two Out of Three Young Millennials Now Use an Ad Blocker” ↗