While at the Lake this summer, my 14-year-old grandson surreptitiously began reading the book his dad had asked me to read. After he finished the book, I asked him to write a summary to determine if he understood what he had read.
What follows is the summary of “The Storm Before the Calm,” a book every American should read in these troubled times to find peace of mind, he emailed me.
“The Storm Before the Calm by George Freidman is a book about the current crisis in America and how it is related to past events. It also serves as a new and interesting look at American history. The main premise is that American history comes in two “cycles”: a socioeconomic one every fifty years and a governmental cycle every eighty.
The socioeconomic is self-explanatory, as the cycle involves social and economic systems changing, normally during a recession or depression. The governmental cycle shifts how the civic administration of the country works somewhat, and normally happens after a war (revolution-civil war, etc.).
Most recently, the two cycles are remarkably close together, culminating in the recent events we have seen. Now, it may seem that America is on the brink of collapse, but according to the author, the collision of the two cycles merely causes a very intense “pain” in the US.
The book claims that America has always survived these disasters at the end of cycles and becomes better as a result. With all the recent technological advancements and a new cycle on the horizon, there is hope for the future, is there not?”
