josh-grasso/Fourth_Turning

The Fourth Turning What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny by William Strauss and Neil Howe “Every Fourth Turning since the fifteenth century has culminated in total war… America’s old civic order will seem ruined beyond repair...The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025.” That statement, which seems to understand the trajectory of current events in 2020 and 2021 so well, is a prediction that was actually published in 1997 – more than 20 years ago. Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe are widely credited with naming the Millennial generation. They are foremost experts and researchers on Generational identities, and have advanced a compelling theory of American history. In one sentence, the theory is that American history has exhibited a cycle, or seasonality, that is intertwined with the lifecycles of the changing generations as they move throughout time. A life, and a Generation lasts ~80-years, so too does the cycle of American history. The authors published historical precedents, and a sobering prediction, for the Crisis we are navigating today. This project seeks to re-tell the story of William Strauss and Neil Howe’s cycles of American history through data. The data used in this analysis organizes America’s political leadership through their generational identities and retelling America’s economic trajectory through the lens of Turnings (seasons). The Fourth Turning narrative is incredibly compelling, with anecdotes and facts that help organize the 10,000ft view presented to us. However, I want to visualize their story through time: What did the prior cycles really look like, and where does that put us today?

Jupyter NotebookMIT