Consciousness Revolution

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U.S. Generations * = dates disputed, ^ = Strauss and Howe This box: view • talk • edit
Term	Period
^Puritan Generation	1588–1617
Puritan Awakening	1621–1649
^Cavalier Generation ^Glorious Generation ^Enlightenment Generation ^Awakening Generation	1618-1648 1648-1673 1674-1700 1701–1723
First Great Awakening	1727–1746
^Liberty Generation ^Republican Generation ^Compromise Generation	1724–1741 1742–1766 1767–1791
Second Great Awakening	1790–1844
Transcendentalist Generation ^Transcendental Generation ^Gilded Generation ^Progressive Generation	1789–1819 1792–1821 1822–1842 1843–1859
Third Great Awakening	1886–1908
^Missionary Generation Lost Generation Interbellum Generation G.I. Generation Greatest Generation	1860–1882 1883–1900 1900–1910 1900–1924 1911–1924
Jazz Age	1918-1929
Beat Generation Silent Generation Baby Boomers Generation Jones	fl. 1950s-1960s 1925–1945 *1940s-1960s 1954–1965
Consciousness Revolution	1964–1984
Generation X ^13th Generation MTV Generation Boomerang Generation	*1960s–1980s 1961-1981 1974–1985 1977–1986
Culture Wars	1980s–present
Generation Y ^Millennial Generation Echo Boom Generation Internet Generation ^New Silent Generation	*1970s–1990s 1982-2000 *1982–1995 *1994–2001 *1990s or 2000s-?

The Consciousness Revolution was a period of spiritual awakening in American history, according to Strauss and Howe in their books Generations and Fourth Turning. They put the years of the Consciousness Revolution as 1964 to 1984. Under Strauss & Howe's system, the era before the Consciousness Revolution was the American High; the era that follows it is the Culture Wars era.

The Consciousness Revolution began with urban riots and campus fury and swelled alongside Vietnam War protests and a rebellious counterculture. It gave rise to feminist, environmental, and black power movements and to a steep rise in violent crime and family breakup. After the fury peaked with Watergate in 1974, passions turned inward toward New Age lifestyles and spiritual rebirth. For many of this generation, the mood expired during Ronald Reagan's Presidential re-election campaign in 1984 as aging hippies reached their yuppie chrysalis.

Age Location in History:

• The G.I. Generation was entering elderhood. As institution-founders and the "status quo", and they found themselves on the defensive side of the generation gap.
• The Silent Generation was entering midlife. They were thirty something when the slogan "Don't trust anyone over thirty" was popular.
• The Baby boomers were entering young adulthood. They were the masses that made Woodstock so idyllic.
• Generation X was being born. Already, they were looking at the adult world as a source of mass confusion and were starting to be criticized as "bad". The criticism has moved up the age ladder with them.

[edit] See also

• Counterculture
• Fourth Great Awakening
• Jesus Movement
• Charismatic Awakening