Today Then

If you've ever wondered how today's predictions of the future will turn out, check out this overlooked gem. Great minds of the 1890s were called upon to predict life in the 1990s and the results tell more about their concerns and fears than the actual future. You see fears of rising population and immigration leading to mass starvation, and promises that science would find a way to provide (true enough). A broker recommends Florida real estate predicting that rail road access would make Florida bigger than the Riviera (true again). There are even passing references to 'conquering the air', machines that will allow us to see entertainments from far away and women choosing 'when they will assume the crown of motherhood'. But finding these will require wading through a lot of rhetoric about virtue and temperance.

74 American leaders and activists were asked, on the occasion of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, to envision the world of one hundred years hence. Not one even came close to predicting the culture of 1993.This book is not just a clear demonstration of the foolishness of declaring what inventions and innovations the future will bring. It is also a cultural snapshot of the end of the 19th century -- not only in the answers these worthy notables give, but also in the assumptions inherent in the questions asked. "What will be the future of the servant problem?" "What developments will most affect the American Indian in the Twentieth Century?"For all their many answers about culture and technology, not one of the many who were interviewed foresaw the growth and supremacy of the automobile over all other modes of transportation.

this book is required reading for anyone who aspires to predict the future.