The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism

See: Fourth Great Awakening

In his book, The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism, published in 2000,  Robert William Fogel, who received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1993, surveys what he discerns as the cyclical interrelations among "fervent" or "enthusiastic" religion, politics, legislative policies, advances in technology, and public interest throughout the course of American history. In the process, he presents a synthesis of American history in the domains of technological advances, consequences of those advances on social, economic, religious and political life, and on the course of egalitarianism in Americans.

Professor Fogel argues that at least three periods of surges in religious fervor and organization (’awakenings’) have occurred in American history, each greatly influencing the political process and leading to major changes in legislation and governmental policies satisfying the religious fervor for particular egalitarian goals. Each subsequently led to backlash reactions that resulted in new political and legislative changes. He argues that a fourth great awakening began in the 1960s and 1970s and continues into the present (early 21st century), emphasizing a need to complete the goals of the Third Great Awakening and equitably distribute "spiritual" or "immaterial" ["non-material"] resources only tangentially related to religion.

Of Professor Fogel’s book, senior contributing editor of The Christian Century, James Wall, wrote:

Drawing on William G. McLoughlin's original work, Revivals, Awakenings and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607-1977 (1978) —part of a series on American religious history edited by Martin E. Marty—Fogel examines each of four religions awakenings: the better-known first (in the 1730s and 1740s) and second (from the 1790s to the 1830s), a lesser-known third (beginning in the 1890s) and a fourth (which McLoughlin dates from the early 1960s and which he projected as ending in 1990). Fogel identifies egalitarianism as the common theme and goal of all the awakenings. The first three led to material equality, first of condition and then of opportunity. The fourth marked a shift in focus to equality in matters of the mind and spirit.

Phases of the Great Awakenings

One can gain an understanding of the gist of Fogel’s main argument from a table shown on the publisher’s website, reproduced below. The chart shows the phases of the four great awakenings, as interpreted by Professor Fogel, including for each the dates, the phases and nature of the religious revivals, of their rising political effect, and of increasing challenge to the revival’s political program:

Courtesy University of Chicago Press, http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/256626.html

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The publisher’s website, introduces Professor Fogel’s argument as follows:

To understand what is taking place today (2000), we need to understand the nature of the recurring political-religious cycles called "Great Awakenings." Each lasting about 100 years, Great Awakenings consist of three phases, each about a generation long…A cycle begins with a phase of religious revival, propelled by the tendency of new technological advances to outpace the human capacity to cope with ethical and practical complexities that those new technologies entail. The phase of religious revival is followed by one of rising political effect and reform, followed by a phase in which the new ethics and politics of the religious awakening come under increasing challenge and the political coalition promoted by the awakening goes into decline. These cycles overlap, the end of one cycle coinciding with the beginning of the next.

In early 2007 C.E., some historians do discern a fervent religious revival of evangelicalism and Christian fundamentalism prevails among a large segment of the United States population.  Others have argued that to some extent scientific and technological advances, in particular in biology (e.g., promotion of Darwinism and evolutionary biology, embryonic stem cell research technologies, ‘morning-after pill’, etc.) fosters that revival. Advocating religious ideals, President George W. Bush has opposed embryonic stem cell research, and otherwise has been accused by scientists of ignoring scientific evidence that does not accord with Administrative policy.

An annotated table of contents

—Annotated by Citizendium editors, with quotes from Professor Fogel's book—

• Introduction: The Egalitarian Creed in America

• Egalitarianism comprises both ‘material’ egalitarianism but also ‘immaterial’, or 'spiritual', egalitarianism, the latter including such things as sense of purpose, vision of opportunity, self-esteem, sense of discipline and thirst for knowledge — resources optimally transferred to the very young. The overlapping cycles in religion and politics — the four great awakenings — reflect the struggle for egalitarianism in America, a basic creed of the American value system.

Egalitarianism is a national ethic. Or, to put it more precisely, the rise of an egalitarian ethic was one of the major factors that turned the separate American colonies into a nation and eventually led to the establishment of egalitarianism as a national creed.

• The Fourth Great Awakening, the Political Realignment of the 1990s, and the Potential for Egalitarian Reform

• The great awakenings represent reform movements where an ethical and programmatic phase leads to political reform, both arising out of a lag between the consequences of technological change and the adjustments to that change by institutions and government. The first great awakening (beginning ca. 1730s) led to the American Revolution and the establishment of democracy. The second (beginning ca. 1800), led to the Civil War and abolition of slavery, and religion-based efforts to achieve equality of opportunity. The third (beginning ca. 1890), concerned with how to reform vice-ridden cities, with the moral implications of an amoral Darwinism, and with growing labor disputes, ultimately led to the New Deal and the Great Society and the rise of the welfare state. The fourth (beginning ca. 1960-70), led to a focus on spiritual reform.

One cannot understand current political and ethical trends, or properly forecast future economic developments, without understanding the cycles in religious feeling in American history and the social, economic, and political reform movements that they have generated.

• Technological Change, Cultural Transformations, and Political Crises

• Discusses technological change as a double-edged sword, bringing economic growth and greater material egalitarianism, but also problems: cheaper alcohol available to urban poor; cheaper ocean transportation facilitating waves of immigration and its social and economic consequences, lowering wages and raising unemployment; manufacturing economies of scale destroying small businesses; advances in medicine and surgery outpacing ethical guidelines for their implementation. First paragraph chapter:

The ethical crises, religious upsurge, and programmatic demands that heralded the opening decades of the Fourth Great Awakening were precipitated by a series of major technological breakthroughs that destabilized prevailing culture. Some of those unsettling advances were in energy production (particularly nuclear energy), information retrieval, and communications. The unprecedented extension of control of human biology, particularly in the fields of reproductive technology and organ transplantation, also provoked widespread concern. The new technological breakthroughs raised profoundly difficult ethical and practical issues, including many that had never been considered previously, such as how to dispose of large quantities of radioactive waste. Among those who worried about these issues, some became alarmed that humanity was heading toward disaster, led by corrupt or mindless scientists and business leaders.

• The Triumph of the Modern Egalitarian Ethic

• Emphasis in the third great awakening (beginning ca. 1890) on equality of life condition rather than on equality of opportunity. Part of the second great awakening: justice for native Americans, women’s rights, temperance, voting rights for women and blacks, expansion of education, income taxes, entitlement programs, restriction of immigration and child labor.

Much of this chapter is concerned with unraveling the complex interrelations between the experience of and beliefs about poverty and how they affected its definition, the explanation of its existence, and the obligations of the redeemed toward the poor.

• The Egalitarian Revolution of the Twentieth Century

• An evaluation of the egalitarian reforms of the third great awakening (ca. 1890-1960). The successes and failures of policy changes, the relationship between the rapid pace of technology and the rigidities of the political process.

This chapter assesses the extent of income redistribution that has actually taken place during the past [20th] century as well as the share of this income redistribution that can be attributed to the policies and laws promoted by disciples of the Third Great Awakening. The chapter also provides several measures of the overall welfare gains that can be attributed to the egalitarian reforms.

• The Emergence of a Postmodern Egalitarian Agenda

• The new agenda of the fourth great awakening (beginning ca. 1960-70): the necessity to overcome severe misallocations of immaterial resources, the problems involved, the paths to solution.

Central to the new reforms is a vast expansion of higher education and a variety of new educational forms geared to the needs of alienated young people and the elderly.

• Afterword: Whither Goes Our World?

• A prediction of a rosier economic and egalitarian future, with more complex and intense struggles, requiring "spiritual"/"immaterial"/"non-material" resources by individuals. The chapter provides detailed justifications for the predictions indicated in the following quote:

What is the nature of the world we are bequeathing to the youngsters who will inherit the twenty-first century? On the material side it is clearly a richer and healthier world than that inherited by my parents, who were born in 1898…Jobs are likely to become better paying and more flexible…Opportunities for ethnic and racial minorities are likely to increase…Women are likely to break through more and more glass ceilings…The traditional family is likely to become stronger…Major reductions in inequity among nations over the next half century are also likely…Although the world that our grandchildren will inherit will be materially richer and contain fewer environmental risks, its spiritual struggle will be more complex and more intense than those of my generation.

• Acknowledgments, Appendices, Notes, References, Index

This book is based on four decades of research on the interrelations among economic growth, technological change, demographic change, and institutional change. Since the mid-1970s, the main focus of that research has been on secular trends in nutritional status, morbidity, mortality, human physiology, and the process of aging. All that I have learned about these matters is reflected in this book.

Why does an economist concern himself with 'spiritual'/'immaterial' egalitarianism?

Professor Fogel asserts that progress in material egalitarianism — the fair distribution of material wealth among Americans — has far outpaced progress in non-material egalitarianism — the fair distribution of resources such as:

• a sense of purpose - underpinning all
• a vision of opportunity - confidence of the possible
• a sense of the mainstream of work and life - a reality check on the opportunities and possibilities
• a strong family ethic - grounding personal life
• a sense of community - grounding social life
• the capacity to engage with diverse groups - fostering all of the above
• an ethic of benevolence - the golden rule
• a work ethic - putting energy to use
• a sense of discipline - without which a work ethic useless
• the capacity to focus and concentrate one's efforts - disciplined discipline
• the capacity to resist the lure of hedonism - detracts from all of the above
• the capacity for self-education - no osmosis of knowledge
• a thirst for knowledge - needed to serve the capacity for self-education
• an appreciation for quality - no shabby performance
• self-esteem - to pursue one's sense of purpose

Equal distribution of material resources without equal distribution of such non-material resources means that segments of the population remain 'poor' in quality of life. Although he considers himself a "secular child" of the third great awakenining, Professor Fogel lauds both the secular and religious ideals that promote non-material, or spiritual, egalitarianism.

Although the majority of Americans, especially those over forty, find many of these resources in the ethics and creeds of their religion, there are numerous other codes of behavior and theories of life that inspire virtue and lead to success in coping with the challenges and pitfalls of modern life. Various quasi-religious organizations and movements have developed—secular humanism, civil religion, and various secular philosophies—and their nature and content are widely debated by scholars.

   A physicist speaks

Steven Weinberg, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics, writes:

If any one idea can justly be called the American idea, it is that a child’s circumstances at birth should not determine the station in life that that child will occupy as an adult. Americans swept away the instruments of English hereditary inequality—entails and titles of nobility—even before we had a constitution…In the decades that followed, American egalitarianism was furthered by the Homestead Act, the Civil War amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1871, the graduated income tax, the GI Bill, and other landmarks of our history.

Responses to Professor Fogel’s book

Sampling some of the responses by reviewers of Professor Fogel’s book indicates general praise for its scholarship and its wisdom in willingness to deal directly with the question of the resources needed for humans to lead a fulfilling life — one of self-realization, of realizing one's potential. Many commentators, however, disagree with critical aspects of Professor Fogel's analysis and policy recommendations.

About Robert William Fogel

To learn more about Robert William Fogel, read his not brief autobiographical sketch provided to the Nobel Foundation, and his Nobel Prize lecture. For an extensive but selected bibliography of works by Robert William Fogel, see this citation.