Synopses & Reviews
Imagining Tomorrow takes a lively and informative look at the future as envisioned in the American past. Covering the period from the 1880s to the present, it examines the expectations that various groups of Americans held regarding the technology of tomorrow. The book contributes to our understanding of twentieth-century culture, technology and what may be called the history of the future.Six of the ten essays in the book probe the future imagined for particular inventions, such as the electric light, x-ray, radio, and computer. Two others explore the way architects and designers repackaged the traditional house and city into exciting and evocative images of the future. The remaining two essays focus respectively on the novels of 19th-century technological utopians and 1930s world's fairs, both popular forums for speculating about technology and the future.Joseph J. Corn, a Lecturer in the Program on Values, Technology, Science, and Society at Stanford University, served as general editor for the volume and provides an overall historical perspective in an introduction and epilogue. The other contributors are Paul Ceruzzi, Steven L. Del Sesto, Susan J. Douglas, Brian Horrigan, Folke T. Kihlstedt, Nancy Knight, Carolyn Marvin, Jeffrey L. Meikle, Howard P. Segal, and Carol Willis.
Review
"The value of sheer good fun in scholarship ought never to be discounted: Imagining Tomorrow is chockful of ladies in electrified tea-gowns and time capsules crammed with amazing trivia.... The facts astound and amuse and delight. They also suggest that even post-nuclear skeptics can learn to love technology again," Karal Ann Marling , University of Minnesota The MIT Press
Review
" Imagining Tomorrow makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of how deepseated American faith in technology has helped shape our past and alerts us to the dangers of continuing this blind embrace in the future." Peter J. Kuznick , Science The MIT Press The MIT Press
Synopsis
The history of the future is the history of a society's imagination, and Imagining Tomorrow takes a lively and informative look at the future as envisioned in the American past. These ten original essays explore the impulse to peer into the future, particularly into the American dream of a technological utopia. Some of the technologies discussed are x-rays, radio, plastics, the electric light, and nuclear power (including Henry Ford's nuclear car).Joseph J. Corn is a lecturer in the Program on Values, Technology, Science, and Society at Stanford University.
Synopsis
Joseph J. Corn is a lecturer in the Program on Values, Technology, Science, and Society at Stanford University.
Synopsis
The history of the future is the history of a society's imagination, and