Third wave keeps multidimensional perspectives Its for every human being, to read: students, teachers, Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers,sociologist, Economist,IT managers, sales personnels, and whosever can read and understand this Bible.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
91 of 102 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I decided to reread this book after 20 years to see how accurately it represented the experiences of the past 20 years. How nice a surprise I received when I found that the broad themes were beautifully portrayed against the background of the prior agricultural and industrial economies. This long term perspective made the articulation of the future vision clearer.
Particularly impressive in retrospect is the description of a forecast for mass customized products. The customer "will become so integrated into the production process that we find it . . . difficult to tell . . . who is the producer." One might be reading about someone ordering a computer on the Dell Web site.
Almost equally impressive is the appreciation of how electronic connections will establish horizontal connections. "Even a partial shift towards the electronic office will be enough to trigger an eruption of social, psychological, and economic consequences." "It promises to restructure all human relationships and roles in the office as well."
Key insights related to:
(1) Companies needing to take on full responsibility for the consequences of their actions on society and the environment;
(2) Companies becoming much more important social institutions of change;
(3) Information moving to the center of major decisions;
(4) Government spreading its influence so that business and politics become inextricably entwined; and
(5) Institutional ethics coming to more closely reflect social ethics.
In fact, this is the first book I have located that sees the business organization as the critical institution in making ecological, moral, political, racial, sexual and social change, as well as the usual transactional ones.
The fundamental vision of humanity as seeking a more appropriate civilization that is built around individual choice in coordinating social interests is a remarkably accurate description of the evolution of the free market democracies over the last 20 years.
Realizing how hard it is to forecast anything, one comes away with a remarkable appreciation for Alvin Toffler's fundamental estimation of human potential. He took that understanding, tied technology to it, and found the answer quite well.
After enjoying this remarkable book (for the first time or) again, I encourage you to consider how these same human characteristics will take us forward in the future. How can you facilitate this felicitous development?
Make your actions and those you cooperate in serve everyone's best interests!
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book attempts to explain the both the nature and the process of the technological revolution that has transformed the world's social and economic systems. To quote Newt Gingrich, US Speaker of the House of Representatives, "Alvin and Heidi Toffler have given us the key to viewing current disarray within the positive framework of a dynamic, exciting future... The Tofflers correctly understand the development and distribution of information that has become the central productivity and power activity of the human race.... In the Third Wave, the Tofflers moved from observation (found in earlier works such as Future Shock) to creating a predictive framework They placed the information revolution (from circa 1990) in an historical perspective, comparing it with the other two great transformations, the agricultural revolution (beginning 8000 B.C thru around 1700) the industrial revolution (beginning around 1700 and still spreading across world society in an ever slower movement) . According to the Tofflers, we are feeling the impact of the third great wave of change in history, and we are, as a result, in the process of creating a new civilization." (Preface to Toffler's Creating a New Civilization)
It is the collision of these concentric waves, and the turbulence created by the interaction of these waves, ie the resistance of industrial-based organizations to information-based systems, that accounts, in their view, for much of the seeming social, political and economic disorder. In short, this book seeks to postulate a paradigm that explains the entire scope of the Information Revolution. It succeeds in this goal as perhaps no other book written to date. For this reviewer, The Third Wave is as thought- provoking as we approach the year 2000 as the book The Greening of America was in the 1970s.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
In the first wave, power came from violence or force. In the second, the Industrial Revolution, power came from wealth. Today, it comes from knowledge. The battle for the future is going to be over information. Unfortunately, the book takes 500 pages to say that.
Toffler's other books are stronger and if short on time, can be read in exchange for The Third Wave. However Alvin does write a particularly touching foreword about his wife who has been his long time writing partner.
Toffler's other books are stronger and if short on time, can be read in exchange for The Third Wave. However Alvin does write a particularly touching foreword about his wife who has been his long time writing partner.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read.
This is a must read for anyone interested in taking a look at America's history and what may in store for the future.
Published 9 months ago by Rambush
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good.
I have already rated this purchase. it is very good I would reommend it to anyone.
arrived in time and as described.
arrived in time and as described.
Published 10 months ago by staicovici
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Overlooked Book of All Time.
When I first read "The Third Wave," almost 20 years ago, I knew that Alvin was giving me a glimpse of what was really to come. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Philip J. Westfall
5.0 out of 5 stars
Toffler's most engaging work, a triumph of future-history
In my view, the best of the original "trilogy" (to which a fourth book was eventually added). This book changed the way I experienced and understood history - it put human... Read more
Published on January 3, 2011 by Kevin Frey
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very good, if we were in 1980
Here in Brazil, I read this book, thirty years ago, when I was a child. Well, if we were in 1980, I'll would give four stars for this book. Read more
Published on November 1, 2010 by Dalton C. Rocha
5.0 out of 5 stars
Right on the money, 30 years ago
If you are looking for descriptions of large-scale shifts in world economies and cultures, this book has it. Read more
Published on October 12, 2009 by J. Morelock
5.0 out of 5 stars
this is a pretty amazing book
Even after 20 years have passed. What stands out most in reading it again is how so many of the changes we are going through were foretold and yet human beings seem to have no... Read more
Published on September 8, 2009 by A. Livingston
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just begun to read
I have just begun to enjoy this book.
Frustrated - that I cannot purchase another book - I live in Argentina and see that you can no longer ship down here? Read more
Frustrated - that I cannot purchase another book - I live in Argentina and see that you can no longer ship down here? Read more
Published on March 10, 2009 by Marian Gillyat
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Optimistic Jew
The second book of Toffler's trilogy covers much of the same ground as Fritjof Capra's "The Turning Point" but in a more journalistic and accessible style. Read more
Published on August 31, 2007 by Tsvi Bisk
5.0 out of 5 stars
All the Toffler Books are worth a read
All of Alvin Toffler's books yield really useful insights and are well worth your time.
I have read every one in the series including revolutionary wealth and this book "The... Read more
I have read every one in the series including revolutionary wealth and this book "The... Read more
Published on August 13, 2007 by Jim
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 145
books:
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100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- The Wealth of Nations: Representative Selections by Adam Smith on page 49, page 102, and Back Matter
- Washington, D.C by Gerald in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Basic Human Needs by John McHale on page 340, Back Matter, and Index
- Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher on page 261, and Back Matter
- The social history of the machine gun by John Ellis on page 86, and Back Matter
See all 145 books this book cites
- From Post-Industrial to Post-Modern Society: New Theories of the Contemporary World by Krishan Kumar on 7 pages
- The Congruent Life: Following the Inward Path to Fulfilling Work and Inspired Leadership by C. Michael Thompson on 5 pages
- Creating Emotionally Safe Schools: A Guide for Educators and Parents by Jane Bluestein on 4 pages
- Writing the New Economy by John Middleton on 4 pages
- Introduction to Landscape Design, 2nd Edition by John L. Motloch on 4 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
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