Economic, technological, and sociopolitical changes have been transforming the cultures of advanced industrial societies in profoundly important ways during the past few decades. This ambitious work examines changes in religious beliefs, in motives for work, in the issues that give rise to political conflict, in the importance people attach to having children and families, and in attitudes toward divorce, abortion, and homosexuality. Ronald Inglehart's earlier book, "The Silent Revolution" (Princeton, 1977), broke new ground by discovering a major intergenerational shift in the values of the populations of advanced industrial societies. This new volume demonstrates that this value shift is part of a much broader process of cultural change that is gradually transforming political, economic, and social life in these societies. Inglehart uses a massive body of time-series survey data from twenty-six nations, gathered from 1970 through 1988, to analyze the cultural changes that are occurring as younger generations gradually replace older ones in the adult population. These changes have far-reaching political implications, and they seem to be transforming the economic growth rates of societies and the kind of economic development that is pursued.

罗纳德•英格尔哈特，执教于美国密歇根大学，当代西方政治文化研究的大师级人物，由于其在政治文化研究上的杰出贡献，成为少数入选美国艺术与科学院院士的社会科学学者之一。他提出的物质主义∕后物质主义价值观、后现代价值观和代际文化转变等重要概念及理论为当代政治文化研究最有份量的成果之一。他主持的世界价值观念调查项目提供了目前唯一一个研究范围覆盖约世界上90%人口的民众价值观数据库。2011年，与皮帕诺•里斯共同获得政治学最杰出贡献奖——约翰•斯凯特政治学奖。

代表著作：《静悄悄的革命》《发达工业社会的文化转型》《现代化与后现代化》《现代化、文化变迁与民主》《国际化传媒：全球化世界的文化多样性》。