Generations: History of America's Future

Authors Neil Howe and William Strauss discussed their book, Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. The book was about the effect of generational trends on history and American culture. The authors sorted Americans into 18 generations, and then distinguished among four life cycle types. Each generation seemed to take on one of the following characteristics: idealist (moralistic), reactive (pragmatic), civic (selfless), or adaptive (compromiser). The past, they said, showed there were often significant parallels between the “new” movements of each generation. “American society had pulsed to rhythms both within the family and within the world at large.” They postulated that the four life cycle types could be used both to explain history and predict the future patterns of American culture. Their vision of the future was based on their study of America’s past influences. They called this book the “full story of America around the 18 generations of our history.” close