Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology, and the American Future [Paperback]

Joseph J. Corn (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0262530767 | ISBN-13: 978-0262530767

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The editor, who teaches in Stanford University's Program on Values, Technology, Science, and Society, provides a thoughtful introduction and epilogue to this collection of essays. Six articles cover various inventions, such as the radio, the computer, and plastics; four review aspects of urban culture, including world's fairs of the 1930s and trends in urban architecture. Although the essay on computers covers 1935 to 1985, most of the contributors focus on the late 19th/early 20th century. Each chapter is buttressed by extensive citations and includes well-chosen illustrations. Corn's editorial notes are especially useful in assessing innovations against changing times, as in the Great Depression of the 1930s, and in terms of commercialization. A fascinating and valuable examination of technological futurism. Roger E. Bilstein, Univ. of HoustonClear Lake
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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 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

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (April 7, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262530767
• ISBN-13: 978-0262530767
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,158,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)