I'm a sucker for books that propose/explore historical cycles. This book does that... but really, really, really badly. That said, there is *something* to what they say; I do feel like they have not-quite-put-their-finger on a real cycle. Or an aspect of it. (This is reminiscent of Turchin's Fathers-and-Sons cycle of pre-industrial conflict.) But their "evidence" is... ludicrous. Their presentation more than annoying (books are not PowerPoint presentations!) Their extension of the (possibly real) cyclical pattern they've noticed to Biblical times, to ancient Greece, Rome, the Persians... India, China... WTF-laughable.

This would have been far (*far*) better if they had just stuck to the last 150 or 200 years of American history, maybe with a little Western Europe (maybe?). I think they went for the glory ("we've discovered a world-historical pattern!" vs "we've discovered a limited, contingent, approximate pattern!") to their great loss. Two stars for the something-something they are getting at, and probably -500 stars for everything else. ( )