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Generations (book)

William Strauss and Neil Howe in their books 'Generations' and The Fourth Turning divide Anglo-American history into saecula, or seasonal cycles of history, and divide the saecula into generations by birth year, and classify generations and historical periods into four types each.

As history molds generations, so do generations mold history. Modern Anglo-American history runs on a two-stroke rhythm. The two strokes are an Awakening and a Crisis.

A High is an era between a Crisis and an Awakening, and an Unraveling is an era between an Awakening and a Crisis.

The four types of generations are as follows:

The list of generations and their types is as follows:

      

GENERATION                                     TYPE           BIRTH YEARS                                    
Late Medieval Saeculum:
ArthurianHero1433-1460
HumanistArtist1461-1482
Reformation Saeculum:
ReformationProphet1483-1511
ReprisalNomad1512-1540
ElizabethanHero1541-1565
ParliamentarianArtist1566-1587
New World Saeculum:
PuritanProphet1588-1617
CavalierNomad1618-1647
GloriousHero1648-1673
EnlightenmentArtist1674-1700
Revolutionary Saeculum:
AwakeningProphet1701-1723
LibertyNomad1724-1741
RepublicanHero1742-1766
CompromiseArtist1767-1791
Civil War Saeculum:
TranscendentalProphet1792-1821
GildedNomad1822-1842
ProgressiveArtist1843-1859
Great Power Saeculum:
MissionaryProphet1860-1882
LostNomad1883-1900
G.IHero1901-1924
SilentArtist1925-1942
Millennial Saeculum:
BoomProphet1943-1960
13thNomad1961-1981
MillennialHero?1982-2003?
According to the above chart, generational types have appeared in Anglo-American history in a fixed order for more than 500 years, with one hiccup in the Civil War Saeculum. (The reasons for this is because according to the chart, the Civil War came about ten years too early; the adult generations allowed the worst aspects of their generational personalities to come through; and the Progressives grew up scarred rather than ennobled.)