Description: A prophetic vision of the shape of things to come, from one of America's most eloquent economists. Heilbroner gives a penetrating historical overview of how we have thought about the future through the ages, and issues a clarion call to face the challenges of the 21st century with a new awareness and resolve strengthened by the inspiration of our past.
Review Quotes: "Mr. Heilbroner's thesis is positively charming in its oversimplification of complex history....Yet if Mr. Heilbroner's thesis seems simple...his substantiation of it is a wonder of elegant synthesis....[A] stimulating little book."--The New York Times
"A worldly philosopher's provocative broad-brush perspectives on what the morrow could bring."--Kirkus Reviews"For those of us groping for ways to evaluate what's happening in our brave new world, [Heilbroner] makes a worthwhile contribution."--Business Week"Mr. Heilbroner's thesis is positively charming in its oversimplification of complex history....Yet if Mr. Heilbroner's thesis seems simple..., his substantiation of it is a wonder of elegant synthesis....It is not comfort that one takes away from this stimulating little book. It is instead a sense that one has watched a series of stop-action photographs of human history and that one has seen nothing less than the span of civilization from its dawning to whatever form of twilight awaits."--The New York Times"A thoughtful analysis, gracefully written."--Library Journal"Robert Heilbroner is...a writer who combines an essentially literary intellectual style with a broad knowledge of and respect for economics....A graceful and learned essay."--The Washington Post Book World"An elegant and slim volume that deals with nothing less than the expectations about the future held by pre-capitalist societies, by the world of the capitalist transformation (from 1700 to the recent past) and by the world today."--The New York Times Book Review"The visions that human societies have held about what the future will look like is the rich and complex subject that economist Robert Heilbroner has masterfully limned in his new book."--The Boston Globe"For those of us groping for ways to evaluate what's happening in our brave new world, [Heilbroner] makes a worthwhile contribution."--Business Week"A worldly philosopher's provocative broadbrush perspectives on what the morrow could bring."--Kirkus Reviews