1. Introduction: progress or threat?; 2. The prophets: their backgrounds and ambitions; 3. How we'll live; 4. Where we'll live; 5. Communicating and computing; 6. Getting around; 7. Taking to the air; 8. Journey into space; 9. War; 10. Energy and environment; 11. Human nature; 12. Epilogue: Plus ça change?
A wide-ranging survey of predictions about the future development and impact of science and technology through the twentieth century.
Peter J. Bowler is Emeritus Professor of the History of Science at Queen's University Belfast. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published a number of books on the history of biology and several general surveys.
'This is fascinating, wide-ranging and important work, an ambitious
attempt to do something it's amazing to think nobody has tried
before: to map all the varieties of 'the future' that writers and
thinkers have extrapolated over the last dozen decades or so.
Professor Bowler expertly sets the terms of the discussion about
what the future used to be, and what it might be again.' Adam
Roberts, Royal Holloway, University of London
'This wide-ranging survey of the ways in which technological and
scientific futures were envisaged in the first half of the last
century astutely challenges easy stereotypes, whether of a
widespread cultural pessimism about the threats of technical change
or of simplistic optimism about the limitless capacities of
scientists to achieve utopia. The result is a fascinating and often
surprising book, drawing on an impressive range of popular and
specialist materials, offering a new account of how the future once
looked.' Simon Schaffer, University of Cambridge
'This is a wide-ranging book with an engaging combination of
fascinating topics. Bowler leads us through twentieth-century
literature, science fiction and futurology to discover the imagined
futures that never were.' Sean Johnston, University of Glasgow
'Given his interest in the future scientific and political
consequences of eugenics, perhaps it is no surprise that Peter
Bowler, a noted historian of biology, has now turned his attention
to the topic of futurology more generally. … His discussion of
imagined futures built on different systems of air transport is
particularly compelling. … Bowler's chapter on human and social
engineering shines with vivid detail and nuanced argument. …
Overall, Bowler engagingly documents the birth of many tropes about
future technology.' Wythe Marschall, Physics Today
'… Bowler's work serves as an intriguing starting point for anyone
interested in studying predictions for the future made in the first
half of the twentieth century. … A History of the Future is clearly
an exceedingly well-researched work that would serve as a wonderful
index for study …' The British Society for Literature and
Science
'… the subject of this book is futurology in all its forms, with
brief mentions of literary futures introduced as needed. Even more
than literary texts, … Bowler relies on popular science writing,
both in books and in magazines.' Patrick A. McCarthy, Science
Fiction Studies
'… Bowler's study is an impressively wide-ranging piece of work -
with, I should add, many excellent illustrations in black-and-white
and colour - which succeeds both as a stimulating overview and as a
work of reference.' Michael Sherborne, The Wellsian
'Methodologically careful in its use of varied sources and
conflicting interpretations to avoid false generalizations, A
History of the Future provides a historically changing image of
futurology based on the links between science fiction literature,
popular science magazines, pulp novels, movies, architectural
projects and world fairs. Both the connoisseur and the reader
unfamiliar with science fiction will find themselves busy
(re)reading the novels and watching the movies Bowler brings up in
the text.' Marcos de Brum Lopes, Society for U.S. Intellectual
History (s-usih.org)
'In A History of the Future, Peter Bowler paints a rich and
engaging portrait of the interplay between speculative literature
and technological innovation in the public sphere and in doing so
sheds light on the processes by which innovations were conceived,
created and became part of modern life. The result is a mixture of
popular and academic intellectual history that makes a number of
important contributions to the history of the origins of science
fiction, the role of science in public discourse, and the
technologies that competed in an open-ended quest for scientific
'progress'.' Liam Stowell, European Review of History: revue
européenne d'histoire
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