Let's get reflective

OK Sorry to do this to you, but class is in session.
Ages ago I read a book that I found in the RJS' bookshelf that A. some publisher probably sent to him and B. he never read. and C. because if I was stuck in traffic and I wasn't smoking, or applying bronzer or tweezing my eyebrows, I was reading and in constant need of material. So I found this FANTASTIC book. Then the boss caught me reading it - better than being caught smoking- I told him about it, he said he wanted to read it and since I had finished it and was re-reading chapters I handed it right over. Last I saw of this book.
Well I forgot about it, well not really, but I wound up forgetting the author and the title and I've spent two years randomly searching for some of the key terms in the book hoping to find something. WELL 20 minutes ago I searched 'history cycles four' and voila! It pops right up! The book had distinctive jacket cover so I remembered it immediately.
Ok so it's called The Fourth Turning, and basically it asserts that there are four basic cycles of history, a High, an Awakening, an Unravelling and a Crisis.
The edition I read was done in 1997, and said we were in the midst of an Unravelling, well it's since been republished and the authors have done way more studies and added the assertion that four distinct personality figures emerge based on whatever cycle was taking place during their childhood- the book is totally fascinating and I wholeheartedly recommend it. They even have a pretty beefed up website now too.

Here's a brief overview:
The First Turning is a High —an upbeat era of strengthening institutions and weakening individualism, when a new civic order implants and the old values regime decays.
The Second Turning is an Awakening —a passionate era of spiritual upheaval, when the civic order comes under attack from a new values regime.
The Third Turning is an Unraveling —a downcast era of strengthening individualism and weakening institutions, when the old civic order decays and the new values regime implants. The Fourth Turning is a Crisis —a decisive era of secular upheaval, when the values regime propels the replacement of the old civic order with a new one.

Click here to see a chart of how this applies to Anglo-American history.
Get your geek on.

I can't tell you how glad I am that I refound this book! I can't wait to get it back into my paws!
I'm done packing so, no this was not the result of a massive procrastination scheme, but I really should go to bed.