or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
179 used & new from $0.01
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Third Wave
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

The Third Wave (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it..." (more)
Key Phrases: socialist industrial nations, wave civilization, wave societies, New York, Soviet Union, World War (more...)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
Price: $7.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
  Special Offers Available
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Monday, November 23? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
36 new from $4.40 141 used from $0.01 2 collectible from $10.40

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover, May 12, 1987 -- $56.20 $6.86
  Mass Market Paperback, April 30, 1984 $7.99 $4.40 $0.01

Frequently Bought Together

The Third Wave + Future Shock + Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century
Price For All Three: $23.97

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Future Shock by Alvin Toffler

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century by Alvin Toffler

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books, Single Copy Magazines, and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
  • Over a hundred thousand items are eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. How do I find more eligible items?

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

by Alvin Toffler
4.5 out of 5 stars (17)  $7.99
Future Shock

Future Shock

by Alvin Toffler
4.3 out of 5 stars (35)  $7.99
Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives

Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives

by Alvin Toffler
4.6 out of 5 stars (10)  $10.85
The Evolution of American Educational Technology

The Evolution of American Educational Technology

by L. Paul Saettler
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $39.99
Revolutionary Wealth

Revolutionary Wealth

by Alvin Toffler
3.5 out of 5 stars (34) 
› Explore similar items

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam (May 1, 1984)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0553246984
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553246988
  • Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,756 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #32 in  Books > Science > Technology > Futurology

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Alvin Toffler
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Alvin Toffler Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
socialist industrial nations, wave civilization, wave societies, blip culture, invisible wedge, decision load, electronic cottage, energy base, intelligent environment, wave principles
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Soviet Union, World War, World Bank, Eastern Europe, West Germany, White House, Business Week, New Zealand, General Motors, Middle East, United Nations, General Electric, Latin America, North America, South America, Texas Instruments, Western Europe, Bill of Rights, Colorado Springs, Common Market, Grand Imperialism, Jimmy Carter, Mexico City, New England
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 145 books:
See all 145 books this book cites
 
100 books cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Third Wave
81% buy the item featured on this page:
The Third Wave 4.6 out of 5 stars (29)
$7.99
Future Shock
7% buy
Future Shock 4.3 out of 5 stars (35)
$7.99
Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives
7% buy
Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives 4.6 out of 5 stars (10)
$10.85
Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century
3% buy
Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century 4.5 out of 5 stars (17)
$7.99
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(5)
(5)
(3)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

29 Reviews
5 star:
 (21)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (29 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
77 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Broad Vision of the Potential for Individualization, December 7, 2000
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!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An Explanation of the "Computer Revolution", September 20, 1998
By A Customer
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.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Packed with Knowledge!, March 7, 2002
Perhaps the reason that Alvin Toffler's classic book feels so relevant some 25 years after its initial publication is the fact that he wrote it in a time which, in retrospect, was not so different from our own: The world was trembling before the threat of terrorism embodied, in Toffler's age, by Iranian terrorists, and radical new technologies, in the form of powerful and increasingly affordable computers, were drastically altering business and society. But probably, the book resonates simply because he was right about almost everything. For that reason, we from getAbstract recommend this book as a basic requirement for any professional.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

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 2 months ago 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
Published 8 months ago by Marian Gillyat

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great
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. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Ryan C. Holiday

4.0 out of 5 stars I like Toffler but I like Xiaoping, published by 1stWorld better
I recommend all books by this author, but I prefer the works of Wang Xiaoping, published by 1stWorld much better. Read more
Published 19 months ago by avid reader

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 Good book
Here are my notes

The government was the great accelerator. Because of its coercive power and tax revenues, it could do things that private enterprise could not... Read more
Published on August 13, 2007 by anonymous reviewer

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
Published on August 13, 2007 by Jim

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Overview
No doubt about it - this book is one for the ages. It offers a great overview of Modern Western Society (mainly the U.S.) ca 1980-2000. Read more
Published on March 24, 2007 by D. Harnick

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the Underpinnings of Today's World
Want to know why the world is about to self-destruct? Read this book with an open mind.
Published on February 8, 2007 by Cline Clark

5.0 out of 5 stars The future not only reached us; it has come forward beyond the 70% of the world!
The famous and recognized sociologist Alvin Tofler made one of his most relevant and remarkable set of vigorous reflection around the causes and effects of the Third Wave, a... Read more
Published on September 11, 2006 by Hiram Gomez Pardo

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:












i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.