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Genre: Culture, Non-Fiction
Tags: Culture / Worldview
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Rick Shrader‘s Review:
In April I reviewed The Fourth Turning by the same authors. I give this book more space in order to explain more fully the nature of these books (This is actually the fourth book). The “Millennials” are the generation after the GenXers. They are actually Boomer’s kids who last year (hence the name “Millennials”) entered college. Howe and Strauss see these as the “Hero Generation” which cycles through in four “turnings” of 80-90 year “generations.” They also see them facing a coming crisis within this decade or early in the next. This “crisis” historically has been a world conflict of some kind (these same things have been observed by famous historians such as Arnold Toynbee, Crevecoeur, and Roche) and this generation has always been uniquely prepared to meet the challenge. Last month’s Atlantic Monthly did a lengthy article titled “The Organization Kids” which builds on the same premise. These kids are different than their indulgent GenXer predecessors in that they are a no-nonsense, polite, bright (morally neutral) generation who believe that the spoils of the world to come are theirs for the taking. The warning: “When the crisis comes, its harshness could explode across young lives . . . that have never known a war requiring any significant sacrifice.” Read The Fourth Turning, then this!