I recently picked up “The Fourth Turning” by William Strauss and Neil Howe.

This book fascinates me because of the underlying thesis that: without some notion of historical patterns, no one can meaningfully discuss the past at all.

To support this claim, the authors provide an argument for three different views of time:

Cyclical time: time and events occurring in cycles; recurrent.

Linear time: time as a unique progress from an absolute beginning with an absolute end.

Chaotic time: time that has no path or pattern.

If time is chaos an event like the Civil War could either never happen again or happen tomorrow.

Additionally, why even talk about the founding or decline of a city, a victory or defeat in battle, the rise or passing of a generation, unless we accept that similar things have happened before and could happen again?

Etymologically the word “time” comes from tide – an ancient reference to the lunar cycle.

Because the authors argue that time is cyclical, the book identifies repeating patterns to shed insight on the future.

This is exactly why I love history, because the lessons that others went through provide principles applicable to similiar events in our own lives.

Studying history is really gaining access to past knowledge and experience without having to actually experience it.