- New Arrivals
Fiction- Historical FictionCrime & ThrillersMysteryScience-FictionFantasyPoetryRomanceChildren’s BooksYoung Adult
- Biographies & MemoirsHistoryCurrent AffairsTech & ScienceBusinessSelf-DevelopmentTravelThe ArtsFood & WineReligion & SpiritualitySportsHumor
Children’s BooksListsGift CardsWhat To ReadMy ListsGames- About & Help
- About Tertulia
- Membership & Co-Ownership
- Shipping & Delivery
- Orders & Payments
- Contact Support
- Send App Feedback
- Follow us
- Download the app
The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Visions of the Future: The Distant Past, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Heilbroner calls the first view that of the Distant Past - the immense span that begins with the Stone Age, moves through the great early civilizations of the Near East to the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome, and ends only with the advent of modern times in the eighteenth century. Heilbroner makes the bold assertion that through all this vast panorama a single phrase depicts humanity's expectations of life on earth: it will be like the past. As he asks, what reason was there for expecting anything else? Change comes with the second, much shorter period, from the 1700s to the mid 1950s. Heilbroner calls it Yesterday. Now three immense forces, unknown in the Distant Past, dominate the expectations of the West. One of these is science, with its promise of controlling nature. A second is the advent of a dynamic means of organizing production called capitalism. And a third is the appearance of the revolutionary idea that the people themselves were the master of their destinies. Together these three forces imbue Yesterday's view of the future with an idea utterly unknown in the Distant Past: the expectation that the future will be better than the present. The third view is that of Today. Heilbroner points out that our own view of the future is still linked to science, capitalism, and democracy. What is new is that these powerful forces no longer appear as unambiguous carriers of progress. We look to science with fears as well as hopes; capitalism on a global scale brings economic difficulties along with new horizons; the expression of mass political sentiments conjures up the nightmares of Yugoslavia and Africa as well as possibilities for a widening of democraticgovernment.
Book Details
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publish Date: Jan 25th, 1996
- Pages: 144
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.61in - 5.40in - 0.37in - 0.42lb
- EAN: 9780195102864
- Categories: • Future Studies• Economic History• World - General
About the Author
Robert Heilbroner is Norman Thomas Professor (Emeritus) at the New School for Social Research. His many books include The Worldly Philosophers, An Inquiry into the Human Prospect, and Twenty-First Century Capitalism. He was recently selected the first Scholar of the Year by the New York Council of the Humanities.
Praise for this book
"Mr. Heilbroner's thesis is positively charming in its oversimplification of complex history....Yet if Mr. Heilbroner's thesis seems simple...his substantiation of it is a wonder of elegant synthesis....[A] stimulating little book."--The New York Times"A worldly philosopher's provocative broad-brush perspectives on what the morrow could bring."--Kirkus Reviews"For those of us groping for ways to evaluate what's happening in our brave new world, [Heilbroner] makes a worthwhile contribution."--Business Week"Mr. Heilbroner's thesis is positively charming in its oversimplification of complex history....Yet if Mr. Heilbroner's thesis seems simple..., his substantiation of it is a wonder of elegant synthesis....It is not comfort that one takes away from this stimulating little book. It is instead a sense that one has watched a series of stop-action photographs of human history and that one has seen nothing less than the span of civilization from its dawning to whatever form of twilight awaits."--The New York Times"A thoughtful analysis, gracefully written."--Library Journal"Robert Heilbroner is...a writer who combines an essentially literary intellectual style with a broad knowledge of and respect for economics....A graceful and learned essay."--The Washington Post Book World"An elegant and slim volume that deals with nothing less than the expectations about the future held by pre-capitalist societies, by the world of the capitalist transformation (from 1700 to the recent past) and by the world today."--The New York Times Book Review"The visions that human societies have held about what the future will look like is the rich and complex subject that economist Robert Heilbroner has masterfully limned in his new book."--The Boston Globe"For those of us groping for ways to evaluate what's happening in our brave new world, [Heilbroner] makes a worthwhile contribution."--Business Week"A worldly philosopher's provocative broadbrush perspectives on what the morrow could bring."--Kirkus Reviews