Can a Book Predict the Future?
September 15, 2026
“A 35-year-old book that feels surprisingly relevant today.”
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Every once in a while, I come across an older book that makes me look at current events a little differently. Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, written by William Strauss and Neil Howe and published in 1991, is one of those books. The authors examine American history through the experiences of successive generations and argue that recurring generational patterns can help explain changes in politics, culture, society—and ultimately business. The book traces these patterns all the way back to 1584.
What makes the book especially fascinating today is its discussion of what became known as the “Crisis of 2020.” Writing nearly three decades earlier, Strauss and Howe anticipated that America would enter a period of significant upheaval around this time. They did not predict COVID-19 specifically, but their broader expectation of a turbulent era encompassing the early 2020s is certainly interesting in hindsight. Their theory holds that generations tend to fall into four recurring types, with the interaction among those generations helping create repeating periods of social awakening, stability and crisis.
The theory has its critics, and generational behavior obviously cannot predict the future with scientific precision. Still, that may not be the real value of the book. For business owners and investors, Generations offers another way to think about why attitudes toward work, money, institutions, leadership and society change over time. More than three decades after it was published, I found myself repeatedly thinking about how much of what Strauss and Howe described sounds familiar today.
The Takeaway: Generations isn’t a crystal ball, but it is a thought-provoking framework for understanding how one generation can see the world very differently from the one before it. If you haven’t read it, I think it’s worth adding to your reading list.
