A Short History of the Future

by W. Warren Wagar

Book Overview

In the tradition of H. G. Wells's The Shape of Things to Come, W. Warren Wagar's A Short History of the Future is a memoir of postmodern times. Cast in the form of a history book, the narrative voice of the book's powerful vision is that of a far-future historian, Peter Jensen, who leaves this account of the world from the 1990s to the opening of the twenty-third century as a gift to his granddaughter. A dazzling and imaginative combination...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226869016
• ISBN13: 9780226869018
• Release Date: September 1989
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 339 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Inspiring

I first read this in the year 2000 when my thoughts were naturally attuned to wondering what the next century ahead of us would bring. I found everything I was looking for in this book, and since I was rather ignorant of what exactly Marxism and Socialism were all about, I found this a very helpful introduction. To be clear, I'd picked up the most recent edition published in 1999, which had been rewritten to accommodate the changes that had taken place since 1989 (notably, the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had featured prominently in the first edition). This book hasn't aged that well for me, for I now read it as slightly naïve, but it remains a book that really opened my eyes to the possibilities of political activism and how things could be different rather than just accepting a depressing status quo.

Engrossing read

This was one of the most engrossing books - at the juncture between fiction and reality - that I've read for quite some time. It's certainly light years ahead of any (serious) fiction available at the moment - the next best contemporary fiction I've read is by Don DeLillo - but this book by Wagar demotes that type of quick-kick action into the pornography league.Yes, the world is a sad and boring place, there really isn't a hell of a lot that's worth reading out there, and I doubt whether any other book that's equally engrossing as Wagar's will be written by anyone, fiction-writer, social historian or philosopher, for at least another 100 years. I can only recommend people to return to the greats of world literature - the epic sagas in particular - as a way out of the current cultural poverty. Then again, this is what makes a great read, that it only comes along once a century or so.The reason why this is a good read, and most other stuff on bookstore shelves isn't, is no great mystery: Wagar has read more, sifted reality and thought further than 99% of academics and fictionalists alive today. It must have driven him to near insanity, but he did it. Genius is 90% or so hard work, and Wagar has done his homework, reflected, studied the facts.That said, this probably has to be seen as science fiction in retrospect. The collapse of the Commonwealth is akin to the collapse of Communism in 1991. We are now in something similar to the era of the 'Smalls' and ecomysticism - i.e we are currently living 'utopia'. The US may have to implode as well. The future has in a sense been abrogated. We should abrogate this tacky utopia now and start grappling with reality again - which means using enlightened common sense to establish a non-bureaucratic world order of law, and constructive help to those who are mired in poverty the world over. We should also allow, and even find ways of encouraging, those who are bent on war to slaughter one another, while airlifting civilians out to safe zones. In a sense, ideology has come to an end, that's why we're more or less heading for a synthesis between Wagar's Commonwealth and House of Earth - or at least we should be - this is what any thinking person should realise by now and should start working towards in the confines of his/her own life. Better this realism than more utopias, more science fiction, more ideologies. There won't be any more good reads available for a long time to come - so kick this stuff, get out of your solipsism, and return to the human fold.

Best Utopia of the 20th Century

This book is a career-crowning triumph. Wagar fans who have read "Building the City of Man" or his introduction to "The Open Conspiracy" will anticipate about a third of this book, but the investigation beyond the World Party is breathtakingly good. The book soars because it is not only first-class futurism, but also captivating fiction. Not every historian is also a great novelist, and so "A Short History of the Future" is a surprise. The book's strength is its credible presentation of alternate (centralized and decentralized) long-term scenarios. Its weakness is that it was written before the collapse of the USSR, and proposes a path that did not turn out to be so. But if you read past the particulars to the underlying dynamics, the analysis is both graceful and incisive.

Not an 'end of the world' but a telling of the Future

This is an amazing book, I wish more were writen like it but it seems that many authors do not have the intelligence or sociological grasp of the future as does W. Warren Wagar. This story is not an 'end of the world' type genre story but the ultimate truth that one arrives to is that no government, scientific, or socioligal schemes or ideologies are going to perfect man. though we may be a more advanced people who change in beliefs and idea over the span of human history, we still will generally be human, and W. Warren Wagar accomplishes this profound realization. I feel fortunate that there is atleast one book about the future that does not put us in a utopia or self destrusted hell on earth but rather the same innevitable patterns of history; were still living, and life is still hard.

Enjoyable on many levels, it gets you thinking for months

ASHOTF is one of the best books I have ever read, and the most influential (Structure of Scientific Revolutions and A History of the Balkans are the others), it doesn't leave you.Enjoyably at the end of every section, there are personal notes from "ancestors" of the authors. Also included are some major political characters from obscurity to leadership, as well as the define and fall of nations. ASHOTF manages to perfectly meld a family history, a history of nations, and a discussion on philosophy while seeming to be neither. It makes you see everybody, from your parents to Jefferson, Marx, and Mao, in a new light.