Customer Reviews

The Future of Industrial Man

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In "The Future of Industrial Man," Peter F. Drucker has produced an important book -- one which, like most such books, a difficult read. Intended as a companion to "The End of Economic Man: The Origins of Totalitarianism," it arguably does a better job of explaining those origins, tracing them to the Enlightenment-era enthronment of human reason as a perfect vehicle for discerning the social good -- a belief which admits no possibility of freedom and therefore must necessarily lead to despotism. The genius of the American revolution, he argues, is its rejection of this belief in favor of the explicitly Judeo-Christian epistemological worldview according to which man is imperfect and requires freedom in order to decide between competing conceptions of the good. It is that conservative, anti-Enlightenment principle, he argues, which must be extrapolated to the present day in order to integrate industry into society.

Drucker's prose is heavy and peppered with references to historical events, personalities, and institutions that would be obscure to modern readers. This is a book to read and digest slowly -- all the more so if your intellectual grounding in history and philosophy is shallow. But it should not be passed up merely because of its difficulty, for the problems which Drucker identifies are recurrent throughout history and still exist, in some form, today. And the consequences of leaving those problems unaddressed -- the growth of an unaccountable, uncontrollable government bureaucracy which threatens responsible self-government and basic freedoms -- are chillingly also evident in the creeping nanny-statism of vast swaths of Europe and even some American cities.

I encountered with this page while trying to order English version of The future of industrial man, which Japanese version I just finished.

This book is one of the most exciting writing by P.Drucker.

I achieved or rather confirmed, the basic platform of the socio-econmy we live in. I have learned that the value or discipline of the economy and society of developed nations is not based on the surrealistic ideas but on the accountable prosess of the hsitory.

That being said, the progress of present economy of each nation should have its reference in the world history as well as in its own.

Peter F. Drucker would not want to be an icon. But, he is so charming!