They called it the Crisis of 2020 — an unspecified calamity that “could rival the gravest trials our ancestors have known” and serve as “the next great hinge of history.” It could be an environmental catastrophe, a nuclear threat or “some catastrophic failure in the world economy.”

That was 1991.

The scholars responsible were William Strauss and Neil Howe, whose book “Generations” introduced a provocative theory that U.S. history unfolds in boom-to-bust cycles of roughly 80 years. Their conclusions about the way each generation develops its own characteristics and leadership qualities influenced a wide range of political leaders, from liberals like Bill Clinton and Al Gore to pro-Trump conservatives like Newt Gingrich and Steve Bannon.

They predicted ‘the crisis of 2020’ … in 1991. So how does this end?