Neil Howe says the 4th turning is here. What does that mean for America in a moment of crisis?

Published May 28, 2024 at 9:20 AM EDT

In the late 1990s, demographer and historian Neil Howe and his co-author William Strauss wrote “The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy – What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny.”

The book laid out a theory that history comes in cycles. And at the end of the cycle comes an inevitable fourth turning, typically a period of great crisis and upheaval. Decades after the book was published, Howe says the fourth turning is here.

Host Peter O’Dowd talks to Howe about his insights during this moment.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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