A Century of Tomorrows - by Glenn Adamson (Hardcover)

About the Book

An acclaimed cultural historian takes readers on an intellectual thrill ride through the kaleidoscopic story of futurology, a surprisingly powerful force in the modern world.

Book Synopsis

An acclaimed cultural historian takes readers on an intellectual thrill ride through the kaleidoscopic story of futurology, a surprisingly powerful force in the modern world.

For millennia, predicting the future was the province of priests and prophets, the realm of astrologers and seers. Then, in the twentieth century, futurologists emerged, claiming that data and design could make planning into a rational certainty. Over time, many of these technologists and trend forecasters amassed power as public intellectuals, even as their predictions proved less than reliable. Now, amid political and ecological crises of our own making, we drown in a cacophony of potential futures-including, possibly, no future at all.

A Century of Tomorrows offers an illuminating account of how the world was transformed by the science (or is it?) of futurecasting. Beneath the chaos of competing tomorrows, Adamson reveals a hidden order: six key themes that have structured visions of what's next. Helping him to tell this story are remarkable characters, including self-proclaimed futurologists such as Buckminster Fuller and Stewart Brand, as well as an eclectic array of other visionaries who have influenced our thinking about the world ahead: Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin, Shulamith Firestone and Sun Ra, Marcus Garvey and Timothy Leary, and more.

Arriving at a moment of collective anxiety and fragile hope, Adamson's extraordinary book shows how our projections for the future are, always and ultimately, debates about the present. For tomorrow is contained within the only thing we can ever truly know: today.

Review Quotes

"Insightful.... A Century of Tomorrows is not an examination of The Future; it is an examination of examinations of the future. Adamson tells a story about a special class of storytellers, the future-telling people.... Adamson, having exposed various strains of failed futurology, suggests nonetheless that we will and should continue to make our best guesses, competing with one another, always remembering that every prediction is a statement about the present." --James Gleick, New York Review of Books

"A sweeping survey of future predictions, from 19th-century science fiction to Grace Jones at Studio 54." --Wall Street Journal

"Adamson accords [these visionaries] a place in his book because they expanded America's sense of the possible . . . The conclusion that [he] draws from his illuminating forays into cultural history is that any claim to be able to control the future is an illusion; the more scientific it sounds, the more dangerous it can be." --The Atlantic

"A hurtling history of the art, science and big business of looking ahead." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"A Century of Tomorrows cannot clarify the future, but it provides a confident, learned guide to the present." --Apollo

"An illuminating look at past and present efforts to gaze into the crystal ball." --Kirkus Reviews

"Adamson builds his history like a patchwork quilt, sourcing examples from different intellectual and political traditions (including some from Europe) to create a breathtaking assemblage that showcases how today's ideas about the future, be they hopeful or fatalistic, have precedent in the themes, visions, and feelings that inspired those of the past." --Booklist

"Glenn Adamson has collected a jewel box of thoughtful stories about the past's possible futures; reading about the varied thinkers and doers in this wise narrative is a revelation." --Julia Cooke, author of COME FLY THE WORLD

"Adamson's ingenious study show us how much the ways we think about the future can tell us about who we are, what our desires and preconceptions are, and what we value or overlook. This book has made me see today's cultural and political forecasters in a whole new light." --William Egginton, author of THE RIGOR OF ANGELS

"A Century of Tomorrows will shift how you understand yourself and your own future. A brilliant and absorbing book." --Katherine Turk, author of THE WOMEN OF NOW

"A masterful cultural history, revealing how imagining the future has long been a way of remaking the present, not only for religious prophets, scientific thinkers, and science fiction writers, but in struggles for Native American sovereignty, civil rights, women's rights, environmental justice, and more. In a moment when the future can seem too dark to contemplate, A Century of Tomorrows advances the liberatory possibilities of thinking about the days to come. It's been forever since tomorrow held such appeal." --Louis S. Warren, Bancroft Prize winning author of GOD'S RED SON

"Brimming with astonishing insights and lyrical prose, A Century of Tomorrows is addressed to dreamers, but it is the rare book that belongs on everyone's bookshelf." --Alex Zamalin, author of COUNTERCULTURE

About the Author

Glenn Adamson is a curator and cultural historian. His books include Craft: An American History; Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects; and The Invention of Craft. His work has been published in Art in America, Antiques, Apollo, and elsewhere. He is currently curator at large at the Vitra Design Museum, and was previously director of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, and head of research at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He divides his time between London and the Hudson Valley.