Introduction

In 19 91, william strauss and neil howe wrote a book called generations. They claimed to have invented a formula which worked as well as azimovs fictional psycho history. The idea is that major events change your personality and also how you react to future events. Their thesis has entered mainstream thought so completely that its ideas are taken as basic assumptions now by much of the popular discourse. But on reading it, the authors are so vague that pretty much anything can be taken as confirmation of their hypotheses.