Listen free for 30 days

  • The Fourth Turning

  • What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny
  • Written by: William Strauss, Neil Howe
  • Narrated by: Tom Parks
  • Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Fourth Turning cover art

The Fourth Turning

Written by: William Strauss, Neil Howe
Narrated by: Tom Parks
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $32.14

Buy Now for $32.14

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

Now available as an unabridged recording for the first time

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Discover the game-changing theory of the cycles of history and what past generations can teach us about living through times of upheaval—with deep insights into the roles that Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials have to play.

First comes a High, a period of confident expansion. Next comes an Awakening, a time of spiritual exploration and rebellion. Then comes an Unraveling, in which individualism triumphs over crumbling institutions. Last comes a Crisis—the Fourth Turning—when society passes through a great and perilous gate in history.

William Strauss and Neil Howe will change the way you see the world—and your place in it. With blazing originality, The Fourth Turning illuminates the past, explains the present, and reimagines the future. Most remarkably, it offers an utterly persuasive prophecy about how America’s past will predict what comes next.

Strauss and Howe base this vision on a provocative theory of American history. The authors look back five hundred years and uncover a distinct pattern: Modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting about the length of a long human life, each composed of four twenty-year eras—or “turnings”—that comprise history’s seasonal rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and rebirth. Illustrating this cycle through a brilliant analysis of the post-World War II period, The Fourth Turning offers bold predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for this rendezvous with destiny.

©2009 William Strauss and Neil Howe (P)2023 Random House Audio

What the critics say

“I put down The Fourth Turning with a mixture of terror and excitement. . . . If Strauss and Howe are right, they will take their place among the great American prophets.”—David Kaiser, The Boston Globe

“One of the best efforts to give us an integrated vision of where we are going.”The Wall Street Journal

“A startling vision of what the cycles of history predict for the future.”—USA Weekend

What listeners say about The Fourth Turning

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Worth the time more than once

…Interesting looking at the generations and cycles. This was well done – Gives lots of new creative ideas to explore. One of the more captivating and thought provoking audiobooks I’ve listened to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!