March, 2024
Dear Friends and Family,
The study of any body of work begins with developing an understanding of the objective and essence of the work, followed by a definition of key terms encompassed in a framework to communicate the findings. This type of understanding is the objective of segment 1.
The segment begins with the how and why of generations, what causes generational differences and why we all belong to a generation whether we want to or not. This is explained by Jean M Twenge, a noted professor at San Diego State University and generational expert, in her book Generations.
Then author Amanda Lisetti introduces the first book written on generational theory. Excerpts from that first book Generations by William Strauss and Neil Howe published in 1991 follows. This book provides several concepts of note for generational understanding:
Happy Learning,
Harley
P.S. Strauss and Howe also wrote the Fourth Turning which provided the excerpts for the next to last segment of the “Seeking Wisdom for America” series which predicted a major conflict for America around 2030.
Dear Friends and Family,
The study of any body of work begins with developing an understanding of the objective and essence of the work, followed by a definition of key terms encompassed in a framework to communicate the findings. This type of understanding is the objective of segment 1.
The segment begins with the how and why of generations, what causes generational differences and why we all belong to a generation whether we want to or not. This is explained by Jean M Twenge, a noted professor at San Diego State University and generational expert, in her book Generations.
Then author Amanda Lisetti introduces the first book written on generational theory. Excerpts from that first book Generations by William Strauss and Neil Howe published in 1991 follows. This book provides several concepts of note for generational understanding:
- A generation is defined by birth year usually a span of about 22 reproductive years, but the span is altered into social generations based on the caricature of its prototypical behavior or peer personality. Therefore, the span can vary from as little as 15 reproductive years to as many as 32.
- The defined generation follows through one’s lifespan – Youth, Rising Adulthood, Midlife, and Elderhood.
- Strauss and Howe’s work shows that within the first 17 American generations, similar characteristics are repeated every 80 years or so in four generational blocks. In other words, the first generation of the 80 or so cycle has similar characteristics with all other first generations. The second has different characteristics than the first but similar characteristics with the second generations of each cycle. And so forth with the third and fourth generations. The first generations are termed: “Idealist,” the second “Reactive,” the third “Civic,” and the fourth “Adaptive.”
- Their work further shows that the 80 or so year generational cycle is highly influenced by social moments which occur roughly every 40 to 45 years. These have historically alternated between an awakening (religious) and a significant crisis (usually war.)
Happy Learning,
Harley
P.S. Strauss and Howe also wrote the Fourth Turning which provided the excerpts for the next to last segment of the “Seeking Wisdom for America” series which predicted a major conflict for America around 2030.
THE STUDY OF AMERICAN GENERATIONS – SEGMENT 1
UNDERSTANDING GENERATIONS - EXCERPTS
THE HOW AND WHY OF GENERATIONS: The breakneck speed of cultural change means that growing up today is a completely different experience from growing up in the 1950s or the 1980s – or even 2000s. These changes have an impact: The era when you were born has a substantial influence on your behaviors, attitudes, values, and personality traits. In fact, when you were born has a larger effect on your personality and attitudes than the family who raised you does.
The United States is currently populated by six generations: Silents born (1925-1945), Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), Millennials (1980 – 1995), Generation Z (1996 – 2012), and an as-yet-unnamed generation born after 2013 (I call them Polars; some call them Alphas).
Studying the ebb and flow of generations is also a unique way to understand history. However, History is not just a series of events; it is also the ebb and flow of a culture and all that entails; technology, attitudes, beliefs, behavioral norms, diversity, prejudice, time use, education, family size, divorce. What your grandmother called “living in sin” is today’s accepted unmarried partnership. What a teenager now considers entertainment (Instagram scrolling) is very different from what her parents considered entertainment when they were teens (driving around with their friends). Generational differences also provide a glimpse into the future. Where will we be in ten years? Twenty? Because some traits and attitudes change little with Age or change in predictable ways the data can show us where we are going as well as where we are.
What Causes Generational Differences?
Major Events: The classic theories of generational change focus almost exclusively on just one aspect of cultural change: major events. Major events can certainly shape a generation’s world view. Those who lived through the Great Depression, for example, were often frugal for the rest of their lives. However, this view misses the rest of cultural change – all the ways in which life today is so different from life years ago. A hundred years ago, household tasks like laundry and cooking took so much time and effort that much of the population could do little else. In much of the U.S. in the mid-20th century, Whites accepted racial segregation as normal, while today it is considered morally repugnant. The average woman born in 1930 ended her education with high school, married at 20, and had kids by 25, while the average woman born in 1990 went to college and was unmarried with no children at 25.
Technology: Technology has completely changed the way we live – and the way we think, behave and relate to each other. Unlike the ebb and flow of wars, pandemics, and economic cycles, technological change is linear. As just one example, the technological change of agriculture about ten thousand years ago completely transformed the way humans lived, with downstream effects on cultural attitudes and beliefs. In more recent times, certain technological developments have ultimately led to behavioral and attitude changes beyond the device itself.
UNDERSTANDING GENERATIONS - EXCERPTS
THE HOW AND WHY OF GENERATIONS: The breakneck speed of cultural change means that growing up today is a completely different experience from growing up in the 1950s or the 1980s – or even 2000s. These changes have an impact: The era when you were born has a substantial influence on your behaviors, attitudes, values, and personality traits. In fact, when you were born has a larger effect on your personality and attitudes than the family who raised you does.
The United States is currently populated by six generations: Silents born (1925-1945), Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), Millennials (1980 – 1995), Generation Z (1996 – 2012), and an as-yet-unnamed generation born after 2013 (I call them Polars; some call them Alphas).
Studying the ebb and flow of generations is also a unique way to understand history. However, History is not just a series of events; it is also the ebb and flow of a culture and all that entails; technology, attitudes, beliefs, behavioral norms, diversity, prejudice, time use, education, family size, divorce. What your grandmother called “living in sin” is today’s accepted unmarried partnership. What a teenager now considers entertainment (Instagram scrolling) is very different from what her parents considered entertainment when they were teens (driving around with their friends). Generational differences also provide a glimpse into the future. Where will we be in ten years? Twenty? Because some traits and attitudes change little with Age or change in predictable ways the data can show us where we are going as well as where we are.
What Causes Generational Differences?
Major Events: The classic theories of generational change focus almost exclusively on just one aspect of cultural change: major events. Major events can certainly shape a generation’s world view. Those who lived through the Great Depression, for example, were often frugal for the rest of their lives. However, this view misses the rest of cultural change – all the ways in which life today is so different from life years ago. A hundred years ago, household tasks like laundry and cooking took so much time and effort that much of the population could do little else. In much of the U.S. in the mid-20th century, Whites accepted racial segregation as normal, while today it is considered morally repugnant. The average woman born in 1930 ended her education with high school, married at 20, and had kids by 25, while the average woman born in 1990 went to college and was unmarried with no children at 25.
Technology: Technology has completely changed the way we live – and the way we think, behave and relate to each other. Unlike the ebb and flow of wars, pandemics, and economic cycles, technological change is linear. As just one example, the technological change of agriculture about ten thousand years ago completely transformed the way humans lived, with downstream effects on cultural attitudes and beliefs. In more recent times, certain technological developments have ultimately led to behavioral and attitude changes beyond the device itself.
Technology |
Years of Growth |
Downstream Consequences |
Television |
1947 – 1990 |
Immediate experience of events to other regions and cultures; decline in reading. |
Home Appliances |
1947 – 1985 |
Microwaves, washing machines, refrigerators. Able to pursue careers Increased leisure time. |
Air-conditioning |
1950s – 1980s |
Population growth in south and west; fewer people socializing outside. |
Birth Control |
1960 – 1969 |
More premarital sex; lower birth rate. |
Computers |
1964 – 2005 |
Increase in skills & education, rise in productivity. |
Internet News |
2000 – 2010 |
Instant access to information; decline of newspapers ability to filter news to preferences. |
Social Media |
2006 – 2015 |
Ability to reach large social network; decline in face-to-face social interaction, political polarization. |
Cultural Systems: Individualistic cultures such as the U.S. value freedom, independence, and equality while the more collectivistic cultures such as South Korea instead value group harmony and rule following. Our culture strongly promoted the idea that individuals should sacrifice for the greater good, with, for example, young men expected to fight in the military if they were asked. Over the decades, these social rules began to fall. By the 1960s and 1970s the highly individualistic world we know today had begun to emerge in many countries around the world: Personal choice was paramount, the U.S. military became an all-volunteer force, and “do your own thing” became a mantra. Sacrificing for the greater good was less prized. Treating people as individuals means setting aside the idea of group membership as destiny, which gave rise to movements for individual rights based on gender, race, and class, enshrining equality as a core value of the culture. Individualism has the advantage of more individual freedom and choice, and the downside of more social disconnection; collectivism offers less choice but tighter social connections.
It's important not to conflate individualism and collectivism with political ideologies – they are not the same. Liberalism prizes individualism’s insistence that race, gender, and sexual orientation should not restrict rights or opportunities, but also supports collectivistic social policies such as government-funded health care. Thus, it’s best to think of individualism and collectivism as cultural systems. Technology makes individualism possible. Until well into the 20th century, it was difficult to live alone or to find the time to contemplate being special, given the time and effort involved in simply existing. There was no refrigeration, no running water, no central heating, and no washing machines. Daily living in those eras was a collective experience. One of the great success stories of 20th century America was the emergence of a stable middle class. A society where most people consider themselves middle class is fertile breeding ground for individualism, which posits that everyone is equal.
A Slower Life: Technology also leads to another cultural trend that’s had an enormous impact on how we live: taking longer to grow up and longer to grow older. This trend isn’t about the pace of our everyday lives, which has clearly gotten faster, but about when people reach milestones of adolescence, adulthood, and old age, like getting a driver’s license, getting married, and retiring. A model called life history theory observes that parents have a choice. They can have many children and expect them to grow up quickly (a fast life strategy) or they can have fewer children and expect them to grow up more slowly (a slow life strategy).
The fast life strategy is more common when the risk of death is higher both for babies and for adults, and when children are necessary for farm labor. Under these conditions, it is best to have more children (to increase the chances that some will survive) and to have those children early (to make sure the children are old enough to take care of themselves before one or both parents dies). Infant mortality declined precipitously during the 20th century, but 1 out of 14 babies still died in their first year when the first Silent generation were born in 1925. When the first Boomers were born in 1946, 1 out of 30 babies died before reaching their 1st birthday. By 2020, it had decreased to 1 out of 200. Average life expectancy in the U.S. did not consistently top 60 until 1931, did not reach 70 until 1961, and did not reach 75 until 1989.
In the 21st century, infant and child mortality is lower, education takes longer, and people live longer and healthier lives. In this environment the risk of death is lower, but the danger of falling behind economically is higher in an age of income inequality, so parents choose to have fewer children and nurture them more extensively. The result is a slow-life strategy with lower birth rates, slower development, and more resources put into each child.
We all belong to a generation: No one has a choice in the year they were born. We belong to a generation whether we like it or not. Not everyone will be a typical member of their generation, just as not all women are typical members of their gender and not all New Yorkers are typical New Yorkers. Like all group differences, generational differences are based on averages.
Our interconnected relationships mean the causes of generational changes aren’t centered just on individual behaviors but on group-level dynamics. The smartphone, introduced in 2007 and owned by a majority of Americans by 2013, is a good example. Smartphones are communication devices – they don’t impact just the individual user but their whole social network. As smartphones and social media became the pervasive norm, everyone was affected whether they used them or not. The whole social dynamic changed as communication shifted online and away from in-person meetings and phone calls. In-person interactions were interrupted by people looking at their phones. Spending a lot of time on social media meant you could see what everyone else was doing without you, but not using it at all meant you felt excluded from certain interactions. Everyone is affected by the shift in the mode of social interaction whether they use these technologies or not. Similarly, everyone is a member of a generation.
Generations are turning over faster because the pace of technological change has sped up. It took decades after the introduction of the landline telephone for half of the country to have one, but the smartphone went from introduction to more than 50% ownership in just five and a half years, the fastest adoption of any technology in human history. Some have questioned why the numbers of years in the defined generations are getting smaller as people are having children later, thus lengthening reproductive generations. The answer is straightforward: The generations we label and discuss publicly are social generations, a different concept than reproductive generations.
The Impact of Covid: Surprisingly, most attitudes and behaviors do not show unprecedented changes between 2019 and 2022. That might be because so many trends of the 2020s, from declining face-to-face interaction to increasing political polarization, were heightened by the pandemic, not reversed by it. In other words, the pandemic amplified what was already there, instead of changing it.
Source: Generations by Jean M. Twenge, PhD (2023)
The First Generations Book: Let’s start at the beginning, Generation: The History of America’s Future, 1958 to 2069 is a groundbreaking book written by William Strauss and Neil Howe, which was published in 1991. This extensive work presents a comprehensive analysis of generational theory and its profound impact on American history and society. With its thought-provoking insights and compelling predictions, Generations sparked a significant shift in American public opinion and had a lasting influence on various aspects of society.
At the core of Generations is the central thesis that history unfolds in a series of recurring generational cycles, each with its distinct characteristics, values, and attitudes. Straus and Howe identified four archetypal generational types: Idealist, Reactive, Civic, and Adaptive generations, and proposed that these cycles repeat approximately every 80 years, known as a “saeculum.” By examining the patterns and dynamics of generational cohorts from the Colonial Era to the present day, the authors provided a compelling framework for understanding societal changes, political shifts, and cultural transformations.
Generations had a significant impact on the political landscape. The book prompted politicians and strategists to consider generational factors in their campaign strategies and policy-making decisions. Recognizing the distinct values and priorities of different generations became crucial for politicians aiming to connect with specific voter segments.
Furthermore, Generations proved prescient in its predictions about the Millennial generation, which was still in its infancy at the time of the book’s publication. The authors accurately anticipated that Millennials would wield significant influence and reshape various aspects of society, including technology, politics, and the economy. As these predictions began to materialize, the credibility and relevance of Generations were reinforced further solidifying its impact on public opinion. By shedding light on the distinct values, and experiences of different generations, the book transformed public opinion and sparked discussions that continue to shape our understanding of societal change. Generations not only provided valuable insights into the past and present but also offered a framework for predicting future societal trends.
In conclusion, William Strauss and Neil Howe’s Generations emerged during a transformative period in American history, capturing the social and political framework for understanding the cyclical nature of history and the profound influence of generational cohorts.
Source: Generations Reimagined by Amanda Lisetti (2023)
From Generations: The History of America’s Future by William Strause and Neil Howe (1991): We retell the full story of America from the Puritans forward – the lifecycle course, childhood through old age, lived by the discrete birthyear groups we define as “generations.” We identify eighteen such generations through four centuries of American history, dating back to the first New World colonists. Among these generations, we find important recurring personality patterns – specifically, four types of “peer personalities” that have (in all but one case) followed each other in a fixed order. We call this repeating pattern the “generational cycle.” The cycle lies at the heart of our story and offers an important explanation for why the story of America unfolds as it does. Read together, our 18 generational biographies present a history of the American lifestyle of cross-generational relationships. These relationships – between parents and children, between midlife leaders and youths coming of age, between elders and their heirs – depict history as people actually live it, from growing up in their teens to growing old in their seventies.
Generational Constellations: Leaving aside the very old and very young, America today has four generations that form what we call a generational “constellation,” the lineup of living generations ordered by phase of life. The constellation is always aging, always shifting, moving up one lifecycle notch roughly every 22 years. Youths come of age, rising adults reach midlife, midlifers reach elderhood, elders pass on and a new set of babies enters youth. Whenever the constellation shifts up by one notch, the behavior and attitudes of each phase of life change character entirely. Unmistakably, this happened between the late 1960s and now. It also happened between World War II and Vietnam, between World War I and II, between the Gay Nineties and World War I – and indeed through all of American history.
Because the peer personality of each generational type shows new manifestations in each phase of life, and because it is determined by the constellation into which it is born (a pattern that I forever shifting), the ongoing interplay of peer personalities gives history a dynamic quality. How children are raised affects how they later parent. How students are taught affects how they later teach. How youths come of age shapes their exercise in leadership – which, in turn, substantially defines the coming-of-age experiences of others. This push and pull between generations move synchronously with other alternating patterns in American history. These pendular movements, a startling pattern emerges: a recurring cycle of four distinct types of peer personalities, arriving in the same repeating sequence. Each generation has its own unique story, but when we strip away gradual secular trends (rising living standards, improving technology, expanding population, shifting geography), we see similar human dramas, repeating again and again.
We label the four generational types as Idealist, Reactive, Civic, and Adaptive. With one exception, they have always recurred in a fixed order. During a spiritual awakening, Idealists are moving into rising adulthood while Reactives are appearing as children. During a secular crisis, Civics are moving into rising adulthood while Adaptives are appearing as children. Later in life, these generations trigger another social moment and thus keep the cycle turning. The passage of four generations, Idealist through Adaptive, completes one full generational cycle over the course of four 22-year phases of life (a total duration of roughly ninety years).
Defining the Four Generational Types: Idealistic, Reactive, Civic, and Adaptive:
Belonging to a Generation: A GENERATION is a cohort-group whose length approximates the span of a phase of life and whose boundaries are fixed by peer personality. This definition includes two important elements: the length of a generational cohort-group, and its peer personality.
The Length of a Generation: We choose to base the length of a generational cohort-group on the length of a phase of life. We define life phases in terms of central roles.
The recurring cycle of generational types and moods helps us not only to understand the past, but also to forecast how the future of America may well unfold over the next century. Central to this interaction are critical events that we call “social moments” – which alternate between ‘secular crises” and “spiritual awakenings.” Because a social moment hits people in different phases of life, it helps shape and define generations. And because generations in different phases of life can together trigger a social moment, they help shape and define history – and hence new generations. Throughout American history, social moments have arrived at dates separated by approximately two phases of life, or roughly 40 to 45 years.
A SOCIAL MOMENT is an era, typically lasting about a decade, where people perceive that historic events are radically altering their social environment. There are two types of social moments: SECULAR CRISES, when society focuses on reordering the outer world of institutions and public behavior, and SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS, when society focuses on changing the inner world of values and behavior.
In American History there have been five secular crises all of which marked the culmination of swift and sweeping change in the secular world. Each surrounding era witnessed widespread fear for personal and social survival, collective unity in the face of peril, and sudden institutional change or innovation. Apprehension about the future reached a climax and was followed (in all but the fourth case) by a sense of victory and the dawning of a bright new era. The five are:
Eighteen American Generation
GENERATION TYPE BIRTHYEARS
Colonial Puritan Idealist 1584-1614
Cavalier Reactive 1615-1647
Glorious Civic 1648-1673
Enlightenment Adaptive 1674-1700
Revolutionary Awakening Idealist 1701-1723
Liberty Reactive 1724-1741
Republican Civic 1742-1766
Compromise Adaptive 1767-1791
Civil War Transcendental Idealist 1792-1821
Gilded Reactive 1822-1843
Progressive Adaptive 1843-1859
Great Power Missionary Idealist 1860-1882
Lost Reactive 1863-1900
G.I. Civic 1901-1924
Silent Adaptive 1925-1942
Millennial Boom Idealist 1943-1960
Gen X Reactive 1961-1981
Millennial Civic 1983-
The cohort lengths of all seventeen completed American generations range from 17 to 33 years and average 23.4 years. To our knowledge, we are the first to define, locate, and name the entire sequence of American generations.
Source: Generations by William Strauss and Neil Howe (1991)
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
It's important not to conflate individualism and collectivism with political ideologies – they are not the same. Liberalism prizes individualism’s insistence that race, gender, and sexual orientation should not restrict rights or opportunities, but also supports collectivistic social policies such as government-funded health care. Thus, it’s best to think of individualism and collectivism as cultural systems. Technology makes individualism possible. Until well into the 20th century, it was difficult to live alone or to find the time to contemplate being special, given the time and effort involved in simply existing. There was no refrigeration, no running water, no central heating, and no washing machines. Daily living in those eras was a collective experience. One of the great success stories of 20th century America was the emergence of a stable middle class. A society where most people consider themselves middle class is fertile breeding ground for individualism, which posits that everyone is equal.
A Slower Life: Technology also leads to another cultural trend that’s had an enormous impact on how we live: taking longer to grow up and longer to grow older. This trend isn’t about the pace of our everyday lives, which has clearly gotten faster, but about when people reach milestones of adolescence, adulthood, and old age, like getting a driver’s license, getting married, and retiring. A model called life history theory observes that parents have a choice. They can have many children and expect them to grow up quickly (a fast life strategy) or they can have fewer children and expect them to grow up more slowly (a slow life strategy).
The fast life strategy is more common when the risk of death is higher both for babies and for adults, and when children are necessary for farm labor. Under these conditions, it is best to have more children (to increase the chances that some will survive) and to have those children early (to make sure the children are old enough to take care of themselves before one or both parents dies). Infant mortality declined precipitously during the 20th century, but 1 out of 14 babies still died in their first year when the first Silent generation were born in 1925. When the first Boomers were born in 1946, 1 out of 30 babies died before reaching their 1st birthday. By 2020, it had decreased to 1 out of 200. Average life expectancy in the U.S. did not consistently top 60 until 1931, did not reach 70 until 1961, and did not reach 75 until 1989.
In the 21st century, infant and child mortality is lower, education takes longer, and people live longer and healthier lives. In this environment the risk of death is lower, but the danger of falling behind economically is higher in an age of income inequality, so parents choose to have fewer children and nurture them more extensively. The result is a slow-life strategy with lower birth rates, slower development, and more resources put into each child.
We all belong to a generation: No one has a choice in the year they were born. We belong to a generation whether we like it or not. Not everyone will be a typical member of their generation, just as not all women are typical members of their gender and not all New Yorkers are typical New Yorkers. Like all group differences, generational differences are based on averages.
Our interconnected relationships mean the causes of generational changes aren’t centered just on individual behaviors but on group-level dynamics. The smartphone, introduced in 2007 and owned by a majority of Americans by 2013, is a good example. Smartphones are communication devices – they don’t impact just the individual user but their whole social network. As smartphones and social media became the pervasive norm, everyone was affected whether they used them or not. The whole social dynamic changed as communication shifted online and away from in-person meetings and phone calls. In-person interactions were interrupted by people looking at their phones. Spending a lot of time on social media meant you could see what everyone else was doing without you, but not using it at all meant you felt excluded from certain interactions. Everyone is affected by the shift in the mode of social interaction whether they use these technologies or not. Similarly, everyone is a member of a generation.
Generations are turning over faster because the pace of technological change has sped up. It took decades after the introduction of the landline telephone for half of the country to have one, but the smartphone went from introduction to more than 50% ownership in just five and a half years, the fastest adoption of any technology in human history. Some have questioned why the numbers of years in the defined generations are getting smaller as people are having children later, thus lengthening reproductive generations. The answer is straightforward: The generations we label and discuss publicly are social generations, a different concept than reproductive generations.
The Impact of Covid: Surprisingly, most attitudes and behaviors do not show unprecedented changes between 2019 and 2022. That might be because so many trends of the 2020s, from declining face-to-face interaction to increasing political polarization, were heightened by the pandemic, not reversed by it. In other words, the pandemic amplified what was already there, instead of changing it.
Source: Generations by Jean M. Twenge, PhD (2023)
The First Generations Book: Let’s start at the beginning, Generation: The History of America’s Future, 1958 to 2069 is a groundbreaking book written by William Strauss and Neil Howe, which was published in 1991. This extensive work presents a comprehensive analysis of generational theory and its profound impact on American history and society. With its thought-provoking insights and compelling predictions, Generations sparked a significant shift in American public opinion and had a lasting influence on various aspects of society.
At the core of Generations is the central thesis that history unfolds in a series of recurring generational cycles, each with its distinct characteristics, values, and attitudes. Straus and Howe identified four archetypal generational types: Idealist, Reactive, Civic, and Adaptive generations, and proposed that these cycles repeat approximately every 80 years, known as a “saeculum.” By examining the patterns and dynamics of generational cohorts from the Colonial Era to the present day, the authors provided a compelling framework for understanding societal changes, political shifts, and cultural transformations.
Generations had a significant impact on the political landscape. The book prompted politicians and strategists to consider generational factors in their campaign strategies and policy-making decisions. Recognizing the distinct values and priorities of different generations became crucial for politicians aiming to connect with specific voter segments.
Furthermore, Generations proved prescient in its predictions about the Millennial generation, which was still in its infancy at the time of the book’s publication. The authors accurately anticipated that Millennials would wield significant influence and reshape various aspects of society, including technology, politics, and the economy. As these predictions began to materialize, the credibility and relevance of Generations were reinforced further solidifying its impact on public opinion. By shedding light on the distinct values, and experiences of different generations, the book transformed public opinion and sparked discussions that continue to shape our understanding of societal change. Generations not only provided valuable insights into the past and present but also offered a framework for predicting future societal trends.
In conclusion, William Strauss and Neil Howe’s Generations emerged during a transformative period in American history, capturing the social and political framework for understanding the cyclical nature of history and the profound influence of generational cohorts.
Source: Generations Reimagined by Amanda Lisetti (2023)
From Generations: The History of America’s Future by William Strause and Neil Howe (1991): We retell the full story of America from the Puritans forward – the lifecycle course, childhood through old age, lived by the discrete birthyear groups we define as “generations.” We identify eighteen such generations through four centuries of American history, dating back to the first New World colonists. Among these generations, we find important recurring personality patterns – specifically, four types of “peer personalities” that have (in all but one case) followed each other in a fixed order. We call this repeating pattern the “generational cycle.” The cycle lies at the heart of our story and offers an important explanation for why the story of America unfolds as it does. Read together, our 18 generational biographies present a history of the American lifestyle of cross-generational relationships. These relationships – between parents and children, between midlife leaders and youths coming of age, between elders and their heirs – depict history as people actually live it, from growing up in their teens to growing old in their seventies.
Generational Constellations: Leaving aside the very old and very young, America today has four generations that form what we call a generational “constellation,” the lineup of living generations ordered by phase of life. The constellation is always aging, always shifting, moving up one lifecycle notch roughly every 22 years. Youths come of age, rising adults reach midlife, midlifers reach elderhood, elders pass on and a new set of babies enters youth. Whenever the constellation shifts up by one notch, the behavior and attitudes of each phase of life change character entirely. Unmistakably, this happened between the late 1960s and now. It also happened between World War II and Vietnam, between World War I and II, between the Gay Nineties and World War I – and indeed through all of American history.
Because the peer personality of each generational type shows new manifestations in each phase of life, and because it is determined by the constellation into which it is born (a pattern that I forever shifting), the ongoing interplay of peer personalities gives history a dynamic quality. How children are raised affects how they later parent. How students are taught affects how they later teach. How youths come of age shapes their exercise in leadership – which, in turn, substantially defines the coming-of-age experiences of others. This push and pull between generations move synchronously with other alternating patterns in American history. These pendular movements, a startling pattern emerges: a recurring cycle of four distinct types of peer personalities, arriving in the same repeating sequence. Each generation has its own unique story, but when we strip away gradual secular trends (rising living standards, improving technology, expanding population, shifting geography), we see similar human dramas, repeating again and again.
We label the four generational types as Idealist, Reactive, Civic, and Adaptive. With one exception, they have always recurred in a fixed order. During a spiritual awakening, Idealists are moving into rising adulthood while Reactives are appearing as children. During a secular crisis, Civics are moving into rising adulthood while Adaptives are appearing as children. Later in life, these generations trigger another social moment and thus keep the cycle turning. The passage of four generations, Idealist through Adaptive, completes one full generational cycle over the course of four 22-year phases of life (a total duration of roughly ninety years).
Defining the Four Generational Types: Idealistic, Reactive, Civic, and Adaptive:
- A dominant, inner fixated IDEALIST GENERATION grows up as an increasingly indulged youths after a secular crisis; comes of age inspiring a spiritual awakening; fragments into narcissistic rising adults; cultivates principle as moralistic midlifers; and emerges as visionary elders guiding the next secular crisis.
- A recessive REACTIVE GENERATION grows up as under-protected and criticized youths during a spiritual awakening; matures into risk-taking, alienated rising adults; mellows into pragmatic midlife leaders during a secular crisis; and maintains respect (but less influence) as reclusive elders.
- A dominant outer-fixated CIVIC GENERATION grows up as increasingly protected youths after a spiritual awakening; comes of age overcoming a secular crisis; unites into a heroic and achieving cadre of rising adults; sustains that image while building institutions as powerful midlifers; and emerges as busy elders attacked by the next spiritual awakening.
- A recessive ADAPTIVE GENERATION grows up as overprotected and suffocated youths during a secular crisis; matures into risk-averse, conformist rising adults; produces indecisive midlife arbitrator-leaders during a spiritual awakening; and maintains influence (but less respect) as sensitive elders.
Belonging to a Generation: A GENERATION is a cohort-group whose length approximates the span of a phase of life and whose boundaries are fixed by peer personality. This definition includes two important elements: the length of a generational cohort-group, and its peer personality.
The Length of a Generation: We choose to base the length of a generational cohort-group on the length of a phase of life. We define life phases in terms of central roles.
- ELDERHOOD: (age 66 – 87). Central role: stewardship (supervising, mentoring, channeling endowments, passing on values).
- MIDLIFE: (age 44 – 65). Central role: leadership (parenting, teaching, directing institutions, using values).
- RISING ADULTHOOD (age 22 – 43). Central role: activity (working, starting families and livelihoods, serving institutions, testing values).
- YOUTH (age 0 – 21). Central role: dependence (growing, learning, accepting protection and nurture, avoiding harm, acquiring values).
The recurring cycle of generational types and moods helps us not only to understand the past, but also to forecast how the future of America may well unfold over the next century. Central to this interaction are critical events that we call “social moments” – which alternate between ‘secular crises” and “spiritual awakenings.” Because a social moment hits people in different phases of life, it helps shape and define generations. And because generations in different phases of life can together trigger a social moment, they help shape and define history – and hence new generations. Throughout American history, social moments have arrived at dates separated by approximately two phases of life, or roughly 40 to 45 years.
A SOCIAL MOMENT is an era, typically lasting about a decade, where people perceive that historic events are radically altering their social environment. There are two types of social moments: SECULAR CRISES, when society focuses on reordering the outer world of institutions and public behavior, and SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS, when society focuses on changing the inner world of values and behavior.
In American History there have been five secular crises all of which marked the culmination of swift and sweeping change in the secular world. Each surrounding era witnessed widespread fear for personal and social survival, collective unity in the face of peril, and sudden institutional change or innovation. Apprehension about the future reached a climax and was followed (in all but the fourth case) by a sense of victory and the dawning of a bright new era. The five are:
- The Armada Crisis (1550 – 1588), in England, extended from the first overt hostilities between England a Spain through Drake’s epic voyage to the Golden Hind, and ended with the English destruction of the invasion Armada.
- The Glorious Revolution Crisis (1675 – 1692), in the American colonies, extended from King Philip’s War and Bacon’s Rebellion through the American rebellions against James II, an ended about the time of the Salem witch trials.
- The American Revolution (1773 – 1789).
- The Civil War Crisis (1857 – 1865)
- The Great Depression – World War II Crisis (1932 – 1945).
- The Reformation Awakening (1517 – 1539) in Europe, universally known as the “Reformation” and no doubt the best known of all awakenings in western history.
- The Puritan Awakening (1621 – 1640) in England, Scotland and America, often called the “Puritan Awakening,” also known as the era of “Puritan Enthusiasm.”
- The Great Awakening (1734 – 1743) in the American colonies, known at the time as “the Great and General Awakening” and referred to ever since as the “Great Awakening.”.
- The Transcendental Awakening (1822 – 1837) in the United States, a loosely dated period known to most historians as the “Second Great Awakening,” also called the era of “Romantic Evangelicalism.”
- The Missionary Awakening (1886 – 1903) in the United States, called the “Third Great Awakening” also known as the age of “Reform,” “Revivalism,” and “Labor Radicalism.”.
- The Boom Awakening (1967 – 1980) in the United States, called the “Fourth Great Awakening” and at times termed the “new transcendentalism,” now generally referred to as the recent “Sixties,” “Counterculture,” or “Consciousness Revolution.”
Eighteen American Generation
GENERATION TYPE BIRTHYEARS
Colonial Puritan Idealist 1584-1614
Cavalier Reactive 1615-1647
Glorious Civic 1648-1673
Enlightenment Adaptive 1674-1700
Revolutionary Awakening Idealist 1701-1723
Liberty Reactive 1724-1741
Republican Civic 1742-1766
Compromise Adaptive 1767-1791
Civil War Transcendental Idealist 1792-1821
Gilded Reactive 1822-1843
Progressive Adaptive 1843-1859
Great Power Missionary Idealist 1860-1882
Lost Reactive 1863-1900
G.I. Civic 1901-1924
Silent Adaptive 1925-1942
Millennial Boom Idealist 1943-1960
Gen X Reactive 1961-1981
Millennial Civic 1983-
The cohort lengths of all seventeen completed American generations range from 17 to 33 years and average 23.4 years. To our knowledge, we are the first to define, locate, and name the entire sequence of American generations.
Source: Generations by William Strauss and Neil Howe (1991)
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
| generations_1l_understanding_--_segment_1.pdf |