There was a book written awhile ago (1990’s?) that was called the “Fourth Turning”. Written just before 9/11 it talks about the “fourth” generation coming of age then (1997) and that they are of the same “generation” and same attitudes of “The Greatest Generation”. But it would take some large crisis to unite their efforts away from self and towards a greater call.
I thought that 9/11 was it, and perhaps it was the start as so many honorable men and women signed up to fight Terrorism. Or perhaps it was only training for something bigger.
I know that I am astounded by what the young kids are doing in my church community and those that I know in the military. I won’t sell out ALL of our kids short.
Here’s a synopsis of the book from Amazon. At $5/used copy I might have to actually buy it.
Release Date: December 29, 1997
First came the postwar High, then the Awakening of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and now the Unraveling. This audacious and provocative book tells us what to expect just beyond the start of the next century. Are you ready for the Fourth Turning?
Strauss and Howe will change the way you see the world—and your place in it. In The Fourth Turning, they apply their generational theories to the cycles of history and locate America in the middle of an unraveling period, on the brink of a crisis. How you prepare for this crisis—the Fourth Turning—is intimately connected to the mood and attitude of your particular generation. Are you one of the can-do “GI generation,” who triumphed in the last crisis? Do you belong to the mediating “Silent Majority,” who enjoyed the 1950s High? Do you fall into the “awakened” Boomer category of the 1970s and 1980s, or are you a Gen-Xer struggling to adapt to our splintering world? Whatever your stage of life, The Fourth Turning offers bold predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for America’s next rendezvous with destiny.