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The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism
Robert William Fogel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1993.
"To take a trip around the mind of Robert Fogel, one of the grand old men of American economic history, is a rare treat. At every turning, you come upon some shiny pearl of information."— The Economist
In this broad-thinking and profound piece of history, Robert William Fogel synthesizes an amazing range of data into a bold and intriguing view of America's past and future—one in which the periodic Great Awakenings of religion bring about waves of social reform, the material lives of even the poorest Americans improve steadily, and the nation now stands poised for a renewed burst of egalitarian progress.
"To take a trip around the mind of Robert Fogel, one of the grand old men of American economic history, is a rare treat. At every turning, you come upon some shiny pearl of information."— The Economist
In this broad-thinking and profound piece of history, Robert William Fogel synthesizes an amazing range of data into a bold and intriguing view of America's past and future—one in which the periodic Great Awakenings of religion bring about waves of social reform, the material lives of even the poorest Americans improve steadily, and the nation now stands poised for a renewed burst of egalitarian progress.
383 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 26, 2023
i really hate this book. most of it is an info dump meant to serve as the basis for his argument, which doesn’t actually even hold up well at all. its also incredibly confusing to try and follow. he’ll often bring up things that are completely unrelated, write a brief two sentences that i assume he thinks ties ideas together and then moves on. honestly painful to get through.
June 26, 2010
Fogel believes that egalitarianism was and continues to be a major goal of the American people. “Great Awakenings” are gradual shifts in the beliefs of the majority of the people as a result of unique problems facing that time period and influenced by religious beliefs. These changes in beliefs lead to reforms, often led by religious leaders. Religions are often the moving force behind reforms, with beliefs leading to action.
The four “Great Awakenings” Fogel describes are…
1st 1790-1830 American Revolution
2nd 1800-1920 Civil War/Abolition/Prohibition/Education/Women’s Suffrage/Child Labor Laws/Reform of Political Corruption
3rd 1890-? Social Gospelers & Modernists- Beginning of Welfare State/Income Tax/ Income Redistribution/Anti-big-business/Labor Reforms/Civil Rights/Women’s Rights/Public Health Programs/Settlement houses/Vocational Schools/GI Bill of Rights/Federal scholarships & loans/Union-Labor contracts
4th 1960-? “Spiritual” reform/Traditional Values/Alternative Religions/Profamily/Anti-materialism/Tax Revolt/Attack on Entitlements/Technologically Related Ethical Questions/Global inequality
Fogel states that “The problems precipitated by industrialization and urbanization that were of great concern to Social Gospelers, such as drug addiction, pregnancy among single teenage girls, rape, the physical abuse of women and children, broken families, and violent teenage death, all of which were indicative of the cultural/moral crisis of the age, are more severe today than they were as century ago.” In what Fogel calls the Fourth Great Awakening, people have realized that something different than income redistribution is needed to bridge the gap between America’s current poor and it’s wealthy.
He calls them “Spiritual” Resources.
• Sense of purpose
• Vision of opportunity
• Sense of virtuous purpose in life
• Sense of mainstream of work and life
• Sense of where opportunities are and how to pursue them
• Strong family ethics
• Sense of community
• An ethic of benevolence (resolve to be of service to others)
• Strong work ethic
• Sense of discipline
• A capacity to resist the lure of hedonism
•••• Control self indulgence
•••• Remain faithful to a commitment
• A capacity for self-education
• A thirst for knowledge
• An appreciation for quality
• Self Esteem
Most of these values/attributes/spiritual resources are passed from parent to child at an early age. They cannot be passed on if the parent doesn’t have them.
Fogel recommends programs at the individual level, as often as possible by volunteers, to pass these resources from those who have them to those who need them. He suggests using churches as a vehicle, encouraged by government in the form of grants. He recommends prenatal counseling; mentoring for deprived mothers, at risk youth, and aged; expansion of higher education; and lifelong learning programs.
This book was incredibly informative. It was clearly written, although more difficult than my usual reading; finishing it was a challenge for me. It had many valid points, and some beliefs and attitudes I disagreed with. His “Great Awakening” theory was very interesting, and he did a great job explaining the impetus behind each movement. This book was very educational and I’m glad I read it.
The four “Great Awakenings” Fogel describes are…
1st 1790-1830 American Revolution
2nd 1800-1920 Civil War/Abolition/Prohibition/Education/Women’s Suffrage/Child Labor Laws/Reform of Political Corruption
3rd 1890-? Social Gospelers & Modernists- Beginning of Welfare State/Income Tax/ Income Redistribution/Anti-big-business/Labor Reforms/Civil Rights/Women’s Rights/Public Health Programs/Settlement houses/Vocational Schools/GI Bill of Rights/Federal scholarships & loans/Union-Labor contracts
4th 1960-? “Spiritual” reform/Traditional Values/Alternative Religions/Profamily/Anti-materialism/Tax Revolt/Attack on Entitlements/Technologically Related Ethical Questions/Global inequality
Fogel states that “The problems precipitated by industrialization and urbanization that were of great concern to Social Gospelers, such as drug addiction, pregnancy among single teenage girls, rape, the physical abuse of women and children, broken families, and violent teenage death, all of which were indicative of the cultural/moral crisis of the age, are more severe today than they were as century ago.” In what Fogel calls the Fourth Great Awakening, people have realized that something different than income redistribution is needed to bridge the gap between America’s current poor and it’s wealthy.
He calls them “Spiritual” Resources.
• Sense of purpose
• Vision of opportunity
• Sense of virtuous purpose in life
• Sense of mainstream of work and life
• Sense of where opportunities are and how to pursue them
• Strong family ethics
• Sense of community
• An ethic of benevolence (resolve to be of service to others)
• Strong work ethic
• Sense of discipline
• A capacity to resist the lure of hedonism
•••• Control self indulgence
•••• Remain faithful to a commitment
• A capacity for self-education
• A thirst for knowledge
• An appreciation for quality
• Self Esteem
Most of these values/attributes/spiritual resources are passed from parent to child at an early age. They cannot be passed on if the parent doesn’t have them.
Fogel recommends programs at the individual level, as often as possible by volunteers, to pass these resources from those who have them to those who need them. He suggests using churches as a vehicle, encouraged by government in the form of grants. He recommends prenatal counseling; mentoring for deprived mothers, at risk youth, and aged; expansion of higher education; and lifelong learning programs.
This book was incredibly informative. It was clearly written, although more difficult than my usual reading; finishing it was a challenge for me. It had many valid points, and some beliefs and attitudes I disagreed with. His “Great Awakening” theory was very interesting, and he did a great job explaining the impetus behind each movement. This book was very educational and I’m glad I read it.
February 6, 2026
The Fourth Great Awakening simply didn't happen. Reading about it is still worthwhile.
The Fourth Great Awakening was to be a spiritual revival driven by evangelical Christians in America. Publishing in the year 2000, Vogel saw its spiritual roots in the Reagan revolution and predicted a political realization during the first part of the 21st century.
It didn't happen. As Casey Stengel famously said, "Predictions are hard, especially about the future." Vogel is a very erudite author, and it is worth looking at his predictions and why they didn't come out.
His subtitle is "The Future of Egalitarianism." Egalitarianism has been a leitmotif running through American history, very visible in the three more generally acknowledged Great Awakenings. By his accounting:
The First Great Awakening took place between 1730 and 1830. It operated mostly in the religious realm. It rejected the predestination concept of the Calvinists and the Puritans in favor of a notion that salvation was available to everybody if they worked at it. This was consistent with American society of the time. The frontier was open and anybody who wanted could obtain land, and become relatively prosperous as a farmer. All it took was the virtues of honesty and hard work.
The Second Great Awakening, 1800 to 1920, had to do with personal salvation. The theory was that we were all born equal but some had not achieved their full potential. The social movements were abolition of slavery, temperance – abolition of alcohol, and women's suffrage. The objective was equality of opportunity. The belief remained that different people will achieve different levels of success due to differences in their innate nature, but that everybody should have an equal opportunity at the start.
The Third Grade Awakening, 1890 and onward, was best characterized by the "Social Gospel" philosophy. This put responsibility for the success of members of society not on the individuals but on society itself. The theory was that people could be born into circumstances that they did not have the individual strength to overcome. This was a philosophy behind the welfare state introduced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Note that it was also the communist philosophy – people could not do it on their own, they needed a government to look out for their interests. The enemies of this time were the robber barons, the powerful trusts and corporations. At this time as well the mainstream churches atrophied, as government took over more of the social burdens – reform and welfare – that had occupied the mainstream Protestant churches in the second great awakening.
The Fourth Grade Awakening, 1960 and onward, in his words represents "return to sensuous religion and reassertion of experiential content of the Bible; reassertion of the concept of personal sin." Politically, he projected that it was an "attack on materialistic corruption, and the rise of pro-life, profamily, and media reform movements." The year 2000 may have marked the high watermark of such a movement. It existed, but it never became politically dominant and has lost steam since.
Instead of the evangelicals seizing control, other powers, notably the neoconservatives, took control of the supposedly conservative Republican Party and steered their own agenda. This agenda included support for Israel, which was supported by the evangelicals for religious purposes. It included the "war on terror" which was supported more or less by the same group. However, the millennial children of the evangelicals simply did not have the same fervor as their parents. Moreover, they are not as many of them. They never achieved much political power. Bush, and especially Obama, have flooded the country with immigrants who definitely do not gravitate toward evangelical Christianity and traditional American values. In summary, the Fourth Great Awakening died aborning.
Vogel saw an America that was rich enough to change its focus from material to spiritual well-being. He correctly saw an existential crisis – people's lives were increasingly devoid of meaning. However, the growing gap between the rich and the poor meant that incomes were stagnating and material concerns remained uppermost. It is true that America has problems with drugs and alcohol, unemployment, under education and random youth violence. However, the major political concern has remained one of income redistribution.
The book has some good and prescient observations about the effect of technology on the workplace. It is an early observation that technology is making less skilled workers obsolete. Vogel is naïve solution is more education. This has been tried and it simply doesn't work. Most people are not able to absorb more education, and simply lack the intelligence to put it to good use. The world could certainly use more engineers, but there simply are not enough people with the talent required to become engineers.
A four-star book. It was an honest, earnest effort by a very wise man, but he was not gifted with the ability to see the future. None of us are.
The Fourth Great Awakening was to be a spiritual revival driven by evangelical Christians in America. Publishing in the year 2000, Vogel saw its spiritual roots in the Reagan revolution and predicted a political realization during the first part of the 21st century.
It didn't happen. As Casey Stengel famously said, "Predictions are hard, especially about the future." Vogel is a very erudite author, and it is worth looking at his predictions and why they didn't come out.
His subtitle is "The Future of Egalitarianism." Egalitarianism has been a leitmotif running through American history, very visible in the three more generally acknowledged Great Awakenings. By his accounting:
The First Great Awakening took place between 1730 and 1830. It operated mostly in the religious realm. It rejected the predestination concept of the Calvinists and the Puritans in favor of a notion that salvation was available to everybody if they worked at it. This was consistent with American society of the time. The frontier was open and anybody who wanted could obtain land, and become relatively prosperous as a farmer. All it took was the virtues of honesty and hard work.
The Second Great Awakening, 1800 to 1920, had to do with personal salvation. The theory was that we were all born equal but some had not achieved their full potential. The social movements were abolition of slavery, temperance – abolition of alcohol, and women's suffrage. The objective was equality of opportunity. The belief remained that different people will achieve different levels of success due to differences in their innate nature, but that everybody should have an equal opportunity at the start.
The Third Grade Awakening, 1890 and onward, was best characterized by the "Social Gospel" philosophy. This put responsibility for the success of members of society not on the individuals but on society itself. The theory was that people could be born into circumstances that they did not have the individual strength to overcome. This was a philosophy behind the welfare state introduced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Note that it was also the communist philosophy – people could not do it on their own, they needed a government to look out for their interests. The enemies of this time were the robber barons, the powerful trusts and corporations. At this time as well the mainstream churches atrophied, as government took over more of the social burdens – reform and welfare – that had occupied the mainstream Protestant churches in the second great awakening.
The Fourth Grade Awakening, 1960 and onward, in his words represents "return to sensuous religion and reassertion of experiential content of the Bible; reassertion of the concept of personal sin." Politically, he projected that it was an "attack on materialistic corruption, and the rise of pro-life, profamily, and media reform movements." The year 2000 may have marked the high watermark of such a movement. It existed, but it never became politically dominant and has lost steam since.
Instead of the evangelicals seizing control, other powers, notably the neoconservatives, took control of the supposedly conservative Republican Party and steered their own agenda. This agenda included support for Israel, which was supported by the evangelicals for religious purposes. It included the "war on terror" which was supported more or less by the same group. However, the millennial children of the evangelicals simply did not have the same fervor as their parents. Moreover, they are not as many of them. They never achieved much political power. Bush, and especially Obama, have flooded the country with immigrants who definitely do not gravitate toward evangelical Christianity and traditional American values. In summary, the Fourth Great Awakening died aborning.
Vogel saw an America that was rich enough to change its focus from material to spiritual well-being. He correctly saw an existential crisis – people's lives were increasingly devoid of meaning. However, the growing gap between the rich and the poor meant that incomes were stagnating and material concerns remained uppermost. It is true that America has problems with drugs and alcohol, unemployment, under education and random youth violence. However, the major political concern has remained one of income redistribution.
The book has some good and prescient observations about the effect of technology on the workplace. It is an early observation that technology is making less skilled workers obsolete. Vogel is naïve solution is more education. This has been tried and it simply doesn't work. Most people are not able to absorb more education, and simply lack the intelligence to put it to good use. The world could certainly use more engineers, but there simply are not enough people with the talent required to become engineers.
A four-star book. It was an honest, earnest effort by a very wise man, but he was not gifted with the ability to see the future. None of us are.
July 27, 2022
This is a remarkable book, in that I feel I should remark on it. This reads like an attempt to develop a comprehensive theory of US institutional development, with technology shocks and religion as pervasive factors. It's too broad and too loose of a thesis for him to evaluate formally, so we are left to decide whether we buy the gist of his argument. I would say that I certainly learned a lot and am sympathetic to large swaths of it.
As I got to the end and started to digest all of the empirical evidence Fogel had marshalled, I started to reconsider the central argument. One of Fogel's main points is that an underlying belief for US egalitarians is that material advancement will foster and enable spiritual advancement, as far as it goes. Fogel doesn't buy this at all. Instead, he argues that US material advancement is underrated and that spiritual advancement is not obviously forthcoming from these material gains. I am inclined to agree with both of those propositions.
Yet, the book is ostensibly about these Great Awakenings and how the extant religious environment adapts to economic and social change. I still don't quite have that all straight and am not convinced we are amidst a Fourth Great Awakening.
I did learn quite a bit because Fogel is a provocative thinker and a master of marshalling data to make unorthodox arguments. I will keep a copy on my shelf and revisit as necessary.
As I got to the end and started to digest all of the empirical evidence Fogel had marshalled, I started to reconsider the central argument. One of Fogel's main points is that an underlying belief for US egalitarians is that material advancement will foster and enable spiritual advancement, as far as it goes. Fogel doesn't buy this at all. Instead, he argues that US material advancement is underrated and that spiritual advancement is not obviously forthcoming from these material gains. I am inclined to agree with both of those propositions.
Yet, the book is ostensibly about these Great Awakenings and how the extant religious environment adapts to economic and social change. I still don't quite have that all straight and am not convinced we are amidst a Fourth Great Awakening.
I did learn quite a bit because Fogel is a provocative thinker and a master of marshalling data to make unorthodox arguments. I will keep a copy on my shelf and revisit as necessary.
September 9, 2011
I found the last two chapters of the book interesting and relevant. The edition I read was published in 2000, so I wonder if some of the data and speculations still apply. It seems like some of what the author says rests on the assumption that things will get better economically around the world, but the last four years have definitely shown that that isn't the case. I agree with the idea of the "fourth great awakening" and that it'll focus more on a form of self fulfillment, but I'm wondering how recent economic developments are going to affect this "awakening."
January 6, 2015
Very interesting. The author is an economist and looks at this from a secular viewpoint. Committed Christians will see that his definition for what he calls the fourth great awakening bears only a superficial resemblance to the previous great awakenings. Even so, there is a lot of good information in this book.
August 10, 2014
A bit naive, but full of useful information.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews