Many years ago I remember listening to Thom Hartmann while he had a radio show and he talked about a book that described the cycles a Civilization goes through generation by generation. It starts with Economic collapse. The next generation (the book called this generation the “Builders”) keeps their head down and gets to work rebuilding. The generation after that is more interested in expanding their minds and culture and the arts. The one after that gets greedy and reckless which then creates another economic collapse and the cycle begins anew. I think I may forgotten a generation or two in there because my memory is there were five cycles. I also may have gotten some details wrong
I first heard the show maybe decade or more ago and I remember once years and years ago I did some searching and actually found the book in question but I have since lost it again and have had no luck refinding it. Does this ring a bell for anyone? Does ayone know what book this theory came from that Thom Hartmann was talking about (BTW I had tried e-mailing him and never got a response)? Thanks.
This sounds a lot like Strauss-Howe’s Generations – Strauss–Howe generational theory - Wikipedia
But they likely aren’t they only ones who have come up with something similar.
It doesn’t fit my memory exactly but this may be it. The title The Fourth Turning sounds really familiar to me. Thank you. I
In case anyone is interested there is a new book by Howe just out (Strauss is dead):
The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End By Neil Howe
From the blurb:
Now, right on schedule, our own fourth turning has arrived. And so Neil Howe has returned with an extraordinary new prediction. What we see all around us—the polarization, the growing threat of civil conflict and global war—will culminate by the early 2030s in a climax that poses great danger and yet also holds great promise, perhaps even bringing on America’s next golden age. Every generation alive today will play a vital role in determining how this crisis is resolved, for good or ill.