| Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future Contributor(s): Corn, Joseph J. (Author), Horrigan, Brian (Author) |
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ISBN: 0801853990 ISBN-13: 9780801853999 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press OUR PRICE: $36.10 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 1996 Annotation: Enormous skyscrapers will house residents and workers who happily go "for weeks" without setting foot on the ground. Streamlined, "hurricane-proof" houses will pivot on their foundations like weather vanes. The family car will turn into an airplane so easily that "a woman can do it in five minutes". Our wars will be fought by robots. And our living room furniture - waterproof, of course - will clean up with a squirt from the garden hose. In Yesterday's Tomorrows Joseph J. Corn and Brian Horrigan explore the future as Americans earlier in this century expected it to happen. Filled with vivid color images and lively text, the book is an eloquent testimony to the confidence - and, at times, the naive faith - Americans have had in science and technology. The future that emerges here, the authors conclude, is one in which technology changes, but society and politics usually do not. The authors draw on a wide variety of sources - popular-science magazines, science fiction, world fair exhibits, films, advertisements, and plans for things only dreamed of. From Jules Verne to the Jetsons, from a 500-passenger flying wing to an anti-aircraft flying buzz-saw, the vision of the future as seen through the eyes of the past demonstrates the play of the American imagination on the canvas of the future. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - General - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - Science | History |
| Dewey: 306.097 |
| LCCN: 95051964 |
| Physical Information: 0.44" H x 9.94" W x 7.68" (1.05 lbs) 176 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Enormous skyscrapers will house residents and workers who happily go "for weeks" without setting foot on the ground. Streamlined, "hurricane-proof" houses will pivot on their foundations like weather vanes. The family car will turn into an airplane so easily that "a woman can do it in five minutes." Our wars will be fought by robots. And our living room furniture--waterproof, of course--will clean up with a squirt from the garden hose. In Yesterday's Tomorrows Joseph J. Corn and Brian Horrigan explore the future as Americans earlier in the last century expected it to happen. Filled with vivid color images and lively text, the book is eloquent testimony to the confidence--and, at times, the naive faith--Americans have had in science and technology. The future that emerges here, the authors conclude, is one in which technology changes, but society and politics usually do not. The authors draw on a wide variety of sources--popular-science magazines, science fiction, world fair exhibits, films, advertisements, and plans for things only dreamed of. From Jules Verne to the Jetsons, from a 500-passenger flying wing to an anti-aircraft flying buzz-saw, the vision of the future as seen through the eyes of the past demonstrates the play of the American imagination on the canvas of the future. |
Contributor Bio(s): Corn, Joseph J.: - Joseph J. Corn is a senior lecturer in the history department at Stanford University. He is the co-author of Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future, available from Johns Hopkins. |