Recommended Books (and Source Information)

Click on a book image to go directly to Amazon for more information or to purchase. I own and have read all the books below … and many more on the subject of cycles.

The Testosterone Hypothesis: How Hormones Regulate the Life Cycles of Civilization by Roy Barzilai (2015)

This is a very important book in understanding how testosterone plays a major role at the tops and bottoms of large cycles of from 172 to 1030 years in length.

Birth rates are always exceptionally low worldwide during major cycle tops, as they are at the present time. Low testosterone levels are the culprit. Testosterone is the hormone that allows mankind to reason, plan, think critically, and problem-solve. When testosterone levels are low, cortisol takes over.

Cortisol stokes anxiety and fear and over longer periods of time, has detrimental effects on human health. Understanding how hormones change over time and how they can affect society on a grand scale can help you make sense of the emotional ups and downs that accompany major cycle swings. A must-read, if you’re a student of natural cycles.

The Creature from Jekyll Island, 5th Ed. by Edward Griffin (2010)

This is now one of my favourite books! It was written by a documentary film producer and writer, so it’s an easy and engrossing read! This is the story of the creation of the Federal Reserve in the United States, the private banking cartel that is the source of much of that country’s financial problems.

This book goes much further into the story of compound interest (at the hands of private bankers) and how it has evolved over the past several hundred years into the monster that it is now. Learn how money is created and you’ll never think of any bank the same way again. This book is a “must read” if you want to understand what is going on in today’s world from an international perspective. That’s the because the same disease that’s become entrenched in the U.S. has infiltrated all the major western economies. We’re all in the same boat and there’s only one way out—a major financial revolution.

The Great Wave by David Hackett Fischer (1996)

This book covers Western history from the medieval glory of Chartres to the modern day. Going far beyond the economic data, Fischer writes a powerful history of the people of the Western world: the economic patterns they lived in, and the politics, culture, and society that they created as a result.

Records of prices are more abundant than any other quantifiable data, and span the entire range of history, from tables of medieval grain prices to the overabundance of modern statistics. Fischer studies this wealth of data, creating a narrative that encompasses all of Western culture. He describes four waves of price revolutions, each beginning in a period of equilibrium: the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and finally the Victorian Age. Each revolution is marked by continuing inflation, a widening gap between rich and poor, increasing instability, and finally a crisis at the crest of the wave that is characterized by demographic contraction, social and political upheaval, and economic collapse.

Fischer suggests that we are living now in the last stages of a price revolution that has been building since the turn of the century. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of the world today.

Secular Cycles by Peter Turchin with Sergey A. Nefedov (2009)

Many historical processes exhibit recurrent patterns of change. Century-long periods of population expansion come before long periods of stagnation and decline; the dynamics of prices mirror population oscillations; and states go through strong expansionist phases followed by periods of state failure, endemic sociopolitical instability, and territorial loss.

Turchin and Nefedov study societies in England, France, and Russia during the medieval and early modern periods, and look back at the Roman Republic and Empire. Incorporating theoretical and quantitative history, the authors examine a specific model of historical change and, more generally, investigate the utility of the dynamical systems approach in historical applications.

An indispensable and groundbreaking resource for a wide variety of social scientists, Secular Cycles will interest practitioners of economic history, historical sociology, complexity studies, and demography.

A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind by Stephen Mitford Goodson (2014) – NO LONGER ON AMAZON
The role of money-lenders in history was once aptly termed by many acute observers as the “Hidden Hand.” It is the power to create, lend and accumulate interest on “credit,” and then re-lend that interest for further interest, in perpetuity, that creates pervasive, worldwide debt, from the individual, to the family, to the entire state.

This concise history of usury goes back to the time when Jesus threw the moneylenders from the Temple and traces the private bankers’ tentacles reaching far into the lives of all of us, through the many wars, revolutions, depressions, recessions, and other social upheavals that have been directly related. Goodson shows that both World Wars, the Napoleonic wars, the American Revolution, the rise and fall of Julius Caesar, the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya and the revolution against Tsar Nicholas, all relate to this “Hidden Hand.” It’s the key to understanding the past, present and future.

Web of Debt by Ellen Hodgson Brown, J.D. (2012)
Our money system is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been privatized, or taken over by a private money cartel. Except for coins, all of our money is now created as loans advanced by private banking institutions — including the Federal Reserve, the branches of which are 100% privately owned.

Web of Debt unravels the banking deception and presents a crystal clear picture of the financial abyss towards which we are heading. Then it explores a workable alternative, one that was tested in colonial America and is grounded in the best of American economic thought, including the writings of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. If you care about financial security, your own or the your country’s, you should read this book. [Peter: This is a super easy read and one of my favorite books!]

The Public Bank Solution by Ellen Brown (2013)
Shock waves from one Wall Street scandal after another have completely disillusioned us with our banking system; yet we cannot do without banks. Nearly all money today is simply bank credit. Economies run on it, and it is created when banks make loans.

The main flaw in the current model is that private profiteers have acquired control of the credit spigots. They can cut off the flow, direct it to their cronies, and manipulate it for personal gain at the expense of the producing economy.

This book looks at the public bank alternative, and shows with examples from around the world and through history that it works admirably well, providing the key to sustained high performance for the economy and well-being for the people. [Peter: A must read for anyone wanting to understand how our money is manipulated by the banksters. Another of my favorites!]

Killing the Host by Michael Hudson (2015)
KILLING THE HOST exposes how finance, insurance, and real estate (the FIRE sector) have gained control of the global economy at the expense of industrial capitalism and governments. The FIRE sector is responsible for today’s economic polarization (the 1% vs. the 99%) via favored tax status that inflates real estate prices while deflating the “real” economy of labor and production. The Great 2008 Bailout saved the banks but not the economy, and plunged the U.S., Irish, Latvian and Greek economies into debt deflation and austerity. This book describes how the phenomenon of debt deflation imposes austerity on the U.S. and European economies, siphoning wealth and income upward to the financial sector while impoverishing the middle class.
The Secret Life of Real Estate and Banking by Philip J. Anderson (2008)
Tracing the history of housing cycles in the United States, this examination shows how the banking system reacts to prosperity and recession and reveals the ways regulations enacted after each collapse tend to disappear when boom times return. With its invaluable insights and practical advice, the discussion is aimed at both novice and experienced investors who want to know why the real estate cycle moves as it does, how it can be forecasted in advance, and how best to profit from this knowledge. An excellent book! [Peter]
The Prepper’s Blueprint by Tess Pennington (2014)
Across the ages, in every survival story, a disaster of some sort plays a prominent role. Sometimes the part is played by the government, sometimes it is played by Mother Nature, and other times, the role is taken on by a random mishap. If we have learned one thing studying the history of disasters, it is this: those who are prepared have a better chance at survival than those who are not.

A crisis rarely stops with a triggering event. The aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. Because of this, it’s important to have a well-rounded approach to our preparedness efforts. Due to the overwhelming nature of preparedness, we have created the Prepper’s Blueprint to help get you and your family ready for life’s unexpected emergencies.
The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins (2016)
Former economic hit man John Perkins shares new details about the ways he and others cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Then he reveals how the deadly EHM cancer he helped create has spread far more widely and deeply than ever in the US and everywhere else—to become the dominant system of business, government, and society today. Finally, he gives an insider view of what we each can do to change it.

Economic hit men are the shock troops of what Perkins calls the corporatocracy, a vast network of corporations, banks, colluding governments, and the rich and powerful people tied to them. If the EHMs can’t maintain the corrupt status quo through nonviolent coercion, the jackal assassins swoop in. This book exposes the fact that all the EHM and jackal tools—false economics, false promises, threats, bribes, extortion, debt, deception, coups, assassinations, unbridled military power—are used around the world today exponentially more than during the era Perkins exposed over a decade ago.

The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality by Richard Heinberg (2011)
This book offers a great dose of reality about the future – a must read if you’re new to the idea that the world has changed dramatically since 2007 or that the downturn we’re experiencing is just a little blip on the road to infinite growth. Mr. Heinberg paints a stark scenario of what life will be like over the coming years and explains a lot of the underlying reasons why this is happening. In fact, collapse happens eventually to all civilizations. The one thing he doesn’t offer is the timing for the upcoming crash. That’s what an understanding of cycles will do for you—it provides a bigger context for which to place the upcoming collapse of our economic and social systems.
Conquer the Crash by Robert R Prechter Jr. (2009)
I bought the original version of this book in 2008. It’s now been expanded to include much more information on the credit crunch and deflation. This book provides the very basics about Elliott waves, but more importantly provides key information on why depressions form, and how you can stay safe during a depression, ready to come out the other end and prosper. It also provides a link to online information on the safest banks, where to buy gold or silver, and who you can trust to lead you in the right direction during the largest transfer of wealth in history. Be sure to be on the right side of it!
The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe (1997)
One of the first books I read about cycles and the one that triggered the idea that the market followed a parallel path with society. This book is a ground-breaker, explaining the societal and generational cycles from the present back through the Wars of the Roses. It also looks ahead and has made predictions that have already come true – a very eerie underpinning to the uncanny manner in which history repeats itself … over and over again. Whatever your stage of life, The Fourth Turning offers bold predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for America’s (and the world’s) next rendezvous with destiny. I consider it a “must-read.”
The Unified Cycle Theory by Steve Puetz (2009)
This is the book that puts the work of all the other masters (Dewey, Wheeler, Strauss and Howe) in perspective. Mr. Puetz has done an extraordinary amount of work in developing a comprehensive theory that ties together and relates all the known cycles to the universe as far back in known time as possible. He links them to social, financial, climatic, and the cataclysmic earth events of the past. A fascinating read, but if you’re not interested in the statistics or hard core research, this may not be the book for you. I base many of my comments on this site from much of the work of Mr. Puetz.
How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins (2009)
In a short, fascinating read, Jim Collins (“Good to Great”) explores why once great companies fail. It doesn’t matter what size company you’re running, the lessons here apply. However, the greater lesson is applying this knowledge to the world of the twenty-teens. Is our society about to fail? What will that mean to your company? Do you have a plan B? And if you do, when will you know to implement it?
The World According to Cycles by Samuel A. Schreiner Jr. (2009)
This is a great introduction to cycles and how they affect you on a regular basis. It’s a compelling read with many interesting stories to help you understand how cycles have affected events in the past, over many hundred of years. He explains how you can use your knowledge of cycles to predict changes in your health, mood, relationships, financial investments, weather, politics, and just about everything that happens in the world.
The Culture of Astronomy by Thomas Karl Dietrich (2011)
A comprehensive guide to the relationships between the sun, moon, planets, and stars – how they control the seasons and the environment on earth. Dietrich takes us right through history to provide insight as to how and when some of the greatest discoveries were made. He also lays out all the mathematical relationships, a fascinating study of the numerical factors that run from the heavens right through all aspects of our life on this planet. This is my “bible” when it comes to how our lives are influenced.
Climate – The Key to Understanding Business by Dr. Michael Zahorchak (1983)
This is the book that drove me to start this website. Dr. Raymond Wheeler, along with 200 employees, spent most of his life plotting the weather back through 20 centuries (Zahorchak brings his work to life). Dr. Wheeler determined that we experience cycles of 100, 500, and 1000 years. This makes predicting weather into future a relatively simple matter. For example, today’s warming of the earth was predicted as far back as the 1950s. It’s been much warmer hundreds of years ago than it is today, without the effects of CO2. So hang onto your hats, because this is the book that is the basis for my belief that man-made warming is a pile of well … you pick. Another set of cycles that parallel all the rest.
The Inconvenient Skeptic: The Comprehensive Guide to the Earth’s Climate by John Kehr (2011)
Hands down, the best book on climate for the layman out there (and I’ve read a lot of them!) The first half of the book is a must read for anybody interested in the Anthropogenic Global Warming debate as it explains better than any single source why the earth’s climate changes. The second half is very good at describing why somebody would have good reason to be skeptical of AGW. Each chapter has a layman’s explanation of the big picture and then accompanying science if you want to delve deeper.
The Upside of Down: Catastophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization by Thomas Homer-Dixon (2006)
This is your wake-up call for the impending economic and social upheaval that lies directly ahead. Environmental disasters. Terrorist wars. Energy scarcity. Economic failure. Is this the world’s inevitable fate, a downward spiral that ultimately spells the collapse of societies?Maybe these crises can actually lead to renewal for ourselves and planet earth. The Upside of Down will take you on a mind-stretching, fast-paced tour of societies’ management, or mismanagement, of disasters over time. From the demise of ancient Rome to contemporary climate change, this spellbinding book analyzes what happens when multiple crises compound to cause what the author calls “synchronous failure.”
Cycles: The Science of Prediction by Edward R. Dewey and Edwin F. Dakin (2011)
President Herbert Hoover tasked Edward Dewey with finding out the cause of market crashes after the Great Depression of 1929 and onwards. He spent the balance of his life carrying out extensive studies of cyclicity in economic, geological, biological, sociology, physical sciences and other disciplines. This is one of two books I have on Dewey’s work. There are pages of his findings online, as well. He was one of the founders of The Foundation for the Study of Cycles (1941).
Cycles: The Mysterious Forces That Trigger Events by Edward R. Dewey and Og Mandino (1971)
For anyone just getting started with cycles, this book comes highly recommended. It has lots of Dewey’s original charts and is written in an easy-to-read and understand manner. It is filled with lots of fascinating stories that illustrate the power of cycles. More specifically, you’ll learn about the 18.5 year cycle in real estate, the 9.6 year cycles that affects a variety of wildlife, the 41 rhythm in stock prices, along with dozens of others that affect just about everything that happens on the planet Earth.
Cycles by Samuel Schreiner (1990)
In this fascinating and concise work, Samuel Schreiner, Jr. spells out for the first time in layperson’s terms the recurring forces that can predict changes in one’s health, moods, and relationships; in financial investments, the weather, politics and the state of the world. Cycles will allow you to recognize many naturally recurring patterns in our daily lives. As Lee Iocacca once famously said, “As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a strong believer in the importance of cycles. You’d better try to understand them, because all of your timing and often your luck is tied up in them.”
Electromagnetism and Life by Robert O. Becker and Andrew A. Marino (2010)
The environment is now thoroughly polluted by man-made sources of electromagnetic radiation with frequencies and magnitudes never before present. Man’s activities have probably changed the earth’s electromagnetic background to a greater degree than they have changed any other natural physical attribute of the earth. The evidence now indicates that the present abnormal electromagnetic environment constitutes a significant health risk. There are also positive aspects of the relationship between electromagnetism and life. Clinical uses of electromagnetic energy are increasing and promise to expand into important areas in the near future. This book synthesizes the various aspects of the role of electricity in biology.
The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life by Robert O. Becker and Gary Seldon (1998)
The Body Electric tells the fascinating story of our bioelectric selves. Robert O. Becker, a pioneer in the filed of regeneration and its relationship to electrical currents in living things, challenges the established mechanistic understanding of the body. He found clues to the healing process in the long-discarded theory that electricity is vital to life. But as exciting as Becker’s discoveries are, pointing to the day when human limbs, spinal cords, and organs may be regenerated after they have been damaged, equally fascinating is the story of Becker’s struggle to do such original work. The Body Electric explores new pathways in our understanding of evolution, acupuncture, psychic phenomena, and healing.
Cross Currents by Robert O. Becker (1990)
Dr. Becker tells of the emergence of electromagnetic medicine, which promises to unlock the secrets of healing, and the growth of electromagnetic pollution, which poses a clear environmental danger. He explains the effectiveness of alternative healing methods that use parts of the body’s innate electrical healing systems, and warns that our bodies are being adversely affected by power lines, computers, microwaves and satellite dishes.
Wave Principle of Human Social Behaviour by Robert R. Prechter Jr. (2002)
What drives our social mood? Our actions? Our motivations? Can we look into the make-up of the universe and apply it to who we are and what we do? The answers to these questions are to be found in the new science of socionomics.
Socionomics evolved from the Wave Principle, a theory of patterns in financial markets. Now Robert Prechter proposes that this very same principle can be applied to our own social and cultural lives. Prechter shows that dominant aspects of our unconscious mentation are characterized by measurable patterns. Those patterns form the building blocks of humankind’s social interaction, and in turn, the Wave Principle.
Pioneering Studies in Socionomics by Robert R. Prechter (2003)
Pioneering Studies in Socionomics is the follow-up to Prechter’s ground-breaking introductory text on Socionomics, The Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior. This new title is comprised of a collection of engaging essays representing over 20 years worth of research into this new model of thought.
The Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior by A.J. Frost and Robert Prechter (2005)
Ralph Nelson Elliott (1871-1948) spent much of the 1930s studying the way the markets moved. I often wonder what would have happened had Dewey, Elliott, and Wheeler spent some time together. Their theories all intertwine and for the most part, the cycles they discovered run in parallel. Elliott waves are how the market moves. They are heavily based in Fibonacci numbers, which run all through nature and into the cosmos. When the market are running in a trend, they’re highly predicable and measurable. This book can get technical, but if you’ve been in the markets for a year or two, this will make it all come together for you.
The Theory of Money and Credit by Ludwig von Mises (2010)
Mises wrote this book for the ages, and it remains the most spirited, thorough, and scientifically rigorous treatise on money ever to appear. It made his reputation across Europe and established him as the most important economist of his age. If you truly want to understand money and currency (there’s a difference) and how governments and banks steal from us, you need a solid foundation in how money and finance work. This is the book.
The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson (2009)
If you want a solid background on money, currency, credit, and debt throughout history, this is the book. Ferguson takes you right back to the origins of money and shows how credit and debt began and what its impact was on civilization and our current financial system. This book will give you a basic understanding of how the world’s financial systems evolved and what a precarious situation we’re in today, world over.
A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe by Michael S Schneider (1995)
This solid offering leads us on a spectacular, lavishly illustrated journey along the numbers one through ten to explore the mathematical principles made visible in flowers, shells, crystals, plants, and the human body, expressed in the symbolic language of folk sayings and fairy tales, myth and religion, art and architecture. This is a new view of mathematics, not the one we learned at school but a comprehensive guide to the patterns that recur through the universe and underlie human affairs. This book will introduce you to Fibonacci numbers (the numbers of nature) and provide an understanding of why they’re so important in today’s world.
The Demographic Cliff: How to Survive and Prosper During the Great Deflation of 2014-2019 by Harry S. Dent Jr.
This is a somewhat updated version of an earlier work. Mr. Dent has been an extremely accurate economic forecaster over his long career and in this book, he focuses on the cycles in population. His earlier work was targeted on the major cycles and why we’re headed for a very large depression. We’ve all expected the bust to happen earlier than it did, due in some part to the central banks attempting to print their way out of our international debt problem. However, all they’ve done is prolong the pain and make the demise much worse. This book will give you insight on how to get ahead of the crash and prosper in the ensuing tough years.
The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph A. Tainter (1990)
I found this a fascinating book that helped me understand why we are where we are. You can easily see the cracks in our societal pavement through societies that have preceded us. Dr. Tainter, an archeologist, describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses.
The Five Stages of Collapse: Surviver’s Toolkit by Dmitry Orlov (2013)
Mr. Orlov hosts an extremely popular blog, Club Orlov, that’s kept up to date with his latest thoughts on the slow collapse of our society as we currently know it. This book is very topical in that it explores our current political impotence, looming resource depletion, and catastrophic climate change. He argues that it is during periods of disruption and extreme uncertainty that broad cultural change becomes possible, which fits with the work of Dr. Raymond Wheeler and the Elliott Wave Principle. He’s extremely optimistic for painting such a bleak forecast of the future. He offers a game plan for the future and a good dose of hope.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (2011)
This book is an examination of several societies that have collapsed (including Easter Island, the Vikings in Greenland, and the Mayas), as well as a few that have solved their ecological problems and succeeded. The lesson is clear — we must take action to avoid the collapse of our interdependent global society. “Our world society is presently on a non-sustainable course.” Mr. Diamond also wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Guns, Germs, and Steel, which I also own, a history of how our cultures evolved from the very beginning of time – more of an historical, big picture view of the expanding human race.