Customer Reviews

Today Then: America's Best Minds Look 100 Years into the Future on the Occasion of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition

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This book is a collection of essays written in the early 1890's (1892). Seventy-four famous-at-the-time-but-not-necessarily-famous-now writers were invited to write essays predicting 100 years into the future as a prelude to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Most of the essayists were allowed/encouraged to pick from a list of 33 questions posed by the American Press Association. The essays were published in serial form in newspapers across the US as a prelude to the Chicago Exposition.

Although the book's Introduction gives the reader an explanation of the essay project (summarized above), and the book's compiler/author gives a short background on each essayist as a prelude to his/her individual essay, there is no background given on why these particular 33 questions were posed. The reader is left to his/her own knowledge of the US in the 1890's to provide most of the context of the time in which the essays were written. This could be frustrating, especially as it related to questions/issues that numerous essayists touched upon. The essays quickly became repetitive and less than illuminating when there was inadequate context available.

Two examples: I do have a basic knowledge of the problems/monopoly situation with regards to railroad transportation in the 1890's, so the multiple times essayists touched on that issue (whether the railroads should become public property or stay private, essentially), I understood a bit about the context and thus those parts of the essays were somewhat meaningful and understandable to me. On the other hand, I have no real idea what "the servant problem" that numerous essayists addressed was. The only ideas for a background context that came to mind as I read the essays actually caused me to interpret those passages as racist. Although that may have actually been the case (that the comments were racist), I have no idea if it really was or not because my personal knowledge of the "servant situation" in the 1890's is inadequate to provide the proper context for the comments and the compiler/author provided no context for the reader/me.

All in all, although interesting in some places, I'm not sure I would encourage others to read this book.

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.

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.

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