Mr. Norris deserves thanks for drawing our attention to this book. Unfortunately, neither he nor other reviewers of the book explain how Fischer bridges the gap between historians and investors. Norris is not alone. The answers to these questions explain both Fischer's approach to the history of price revolutions and the value of his book for investors. Their periods are highly predictable.
Great waves are more variable and less predictable.
They differ in duration, magnitude, velocity, and momentum. Cycles must be teased from the data, commonly by statistical inferences in which the evidence is 'filtered' and 'detrended' by various techniques. One must learn to look the evidence in the face, without fixed ideological, theoretical or epistemological preconceptions. We are sometimes told that this is impossible. So it is - for some people.