A Brief History of the Future

by Oona Strathern

‘A Brief History of The Future’ takes the reader on a time travel adventure through the past, present and future, exploring how the ancient art of prediction has become today's science of futurism. From Delphi's virgin visionaries, to science fiction writers, pop futurists, trend gurus and evolutionary experts — this book takes a look at the most interesting and influential figures and what their predictions have done for us. The brilliant, beautiful and sometimes terrifying ideas of visionary thinkers such as Leonardo, Darwin, Orwell and Dawkins have played a key part in influencing our minds, politics and civilization. Today, futurism is all around us — in institutes of higher education around the world futures studies are a hot subject. Governments of nations as small as Liechtenstein have shiny new futures departments, while think-tanks and consultants wield huge influence. Entrepreneurs and politicians are attempting to buy their prefered future and, the question is, do we make the future, or does the future make us? This unique and fascinating book looks behind the scenes at how tomorrow's trends are being identified, ‘made' and marketed today. 'A Brief History of the Future is wise and witty with great stories about the characters who would see the future and their sometimes outrageous ideas. Best of all it illuminates the past of the future.' - Megatrends Oona Strathern is a journalist who has worked for fifteen years as a trend and future consultant for many international companies. She writes a regular column about the latest consumer and socio-economic trends in London for one of Europe's leading future and trend consultants, the Zukunftsinstitut.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2007

Reviews

[Matt Mayevsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A Brief History of the Future" by Oona Strathern is a popular science book. Strathern describes the various stages of the development of what today is called futurism. The author focuses on the people representing the field of future studies. The journey starts from ancient times, the temple at Delphi, Pythia, Cassandra, Plato, by Roger Bacon, Thomas More, Leonardo da Vinci, Michel de Nostredame, Francis Bacon, Thomas Robert Malthus, Marquis de Condorcet, Louis Sebastian Mercier, Jules Verne, Edward Bellamy, Elisabeth Burgoyne Corbett, HG Wells, Joseph Schumpeter, Aldous Huxley, John Langdon-Davies, to the classics of modern futurism, as Ossip Flechtheim, Hermann Hesse, John von Newmann, Theodore von Karman, Issac Asimov, James Surowiecki, Bernard Wolfe, Robert Jungk, Herman Kahn, Alvin Toffler, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Marshall McLuhan, Stanislaw Lem, Arthur C. Clarke and John Naisbitt.

Of course I did not mention all the names that appear in the book. "A Brief History of the Future" is a fascinating historical journey in the future. Through the images of the future, registered in different times, by different people. The book is interesting combination of knowledge and entertainment, thanks to fairly freely narrative style. For those who start their adventure with future studies.

[Elly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected, but a history of those who write/talk about the future and what they predict. Still, a rather fun read, with a lot of nice references to other books that might be nice to read, especialy in the chapter on fiction and future telling.

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this book, but it was sluggish and just dragged on. I didn't wind up finishing it, unfortunately, though I did get halfway through. I think part of the problem was that the writing seemed very dry. Although the topic was fairly interesting (though admittedly not what I'm personally interested in), it could have been written in a better way.

I'll try to get my husband to read this and see what he thinks- it seems more up his alley, anyway.

[Aaris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the format of this book, the way it was written very easy to read even for someone like me. Content was non linear, clear albeit random facts, it was more Taylor’s for people who would like to hear about past futurists and their predictions rather than how to do it. Easy read if you’ve got sometime between books.