Generations Study Guide & Notes

Generations Plot Summary

Preview of Generations Summary:

Passenger trains have a pre-determined route. As they proceed along this route, they stop at specific stations and then proceed to their final destination, by which time all passengers must disembark. This provides authors Strauss and Howe with the analogy to describe a continual and sequential progression of generations through American history. Passengers board the train as infants, proceeding to the next station of rising adulthood, then to the station of midlife and, finally, to the station of elderhood. The train completes its route when the elders have passed on. Behind this first train, another generation has boarded its own train, looking very different from the passengers of the train in front and from the next train to embark in another twenty-two years.

The hypothesis is clear: There are only four generational types—Idealist, Reactive, Civic and Adaptive, each with its own set of characteristics,...
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