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Breaking Point: America Approaching A Period Of Disintegration, Argues Anthropologist Peter Turchin

TOPICS: AGES OF DISCORD, AGES OF DISCORD: A STRUCTURAL-DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN HISTORY,AMERICAN HISTORY, ANTHROPOLOGY, BOOKS, EDITOR’S PICKS, ELECTIONS 2016, OUR PICKS: BOOKS, PETER TURCHIN, U.S. HISTORY, , , ,

Breaking point: America approaching a period of disintegration, argues anthropologist Peter TurchinUnrest in Charlotte, NC, September 20, 2016. (Credit: Reuters/​Adam Rhew)

As the 2016 cam­paign reach­es fever pitch, the more heat there is and the less light is shed. Which is why evo­lu­tion­ary anthro­pol­o­gist Peter Turchin’s new book comes as such a breath of fresh air. “Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History” is not about this year’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, per se, but it’s a quan­tum leap for­ward in illu­mi­nat­ing the dis­in­te­gra­tive trends that America has expe­ri­enced over the last sev­er­al decades that are cur­rent­ly dri­ving our politics.

Everything from sky­rock­et­ing inequal­i­ty and polit­i­cal grid­lock to white work­ing class angst and the rise of mass shoot­ings and oth­er trou­bling signs of our times — these are all inter­con­nect­ed reflec­tions of where America is in a cyclic his­tor­i­cal process: social inte­gra­tion fol­lowed by dis­in­te­gra­tion, dis­cord and vio­lence. Turchin and oth­ers have observed this pat­tern repeat­ed­ly in civ­i­liza­tions from ancient Rome and ear­ly Chinese dynas­ties up to the present day.

Here are two sum­ma­ry snap­shots of these long-term cycles from the book, the first from Europe:

European Cycles

Then from China: Read more here: http://​www​.salon​.com/​2​0​1​6​/​1​0​/​0​1​/​b​r​e​a​k​i​n​g​-​p​o​i​n​t​-​a​m​e​r​i​c​a​-​a​p​p​r​o​a​c​h​i​n​g​-​a​-​p​e​r​i​o​d​-​o​f​-​d​i​s​i​n​t​e​g​r​a​t​i​o​n​-​a​r​g​u​e​s​-​a​n​t​h​r​o​p​o​l​o​g​i​s​t​-​p​e​t​e​r​-​t​u​r​c​h​in/