Future Books
For a full list of the best books on Futurism, please have a look at the bibliography of my book, A Brief History of the Future.
Strathern, Oona: A Brief History of the Future
How visionary thinkers changed the world and tomorrow's trends are "made" and marketed.
A Key Book for Trend and Future Research.
www.amazon.co.uk
Here in alphabetical order, a few of my favourites:
Baker, Robin: Sex in the Future
Not for the squeamish, sensitive or the incurably romantic.
www.amazon.co.uk
Carey, John (Editor): The Faber Book of Utopias.
Carefully chosen extracts and short sharp analysis from all the strangest,
best and nastiest utopias you could ever wish to read or dream about.
www.amazon.co.uk
Clarke, Arthur C.: Profiles of the Future
Originally published in 1962, but read the millennium edition
as it has his updated comments and apologies.
www.clarkefoundation.org is
his official website where you can read the original 1945 article proposing satellites.
www.amazon.co.uk
Clarke, I.F.: The Pattern of Expectation
Dense, yet highly readable
history of futures from 1644 to 2001. One of John Naisbitt’s favourite books on
futurism. Out of print but worth tracking down this or any of his other works.
www.amazon.co.uk
Flechtheim, Ossip: History and Futurology
With a foreword by Robert Jungk.
A selection of his early papers and ideas.
Gordon, Adam: Future Savvy
Identifying Trends to Make Better Decisions, Manage Uncertainty,
and Profit from Change
AMACOM, New York, 2008
www.amazon.co.uk
Horx, Matthias: How We Will Live
A Synthesis of Life in the Future.
www.amazon.co.uk
Jungk, Robert: Tomorrow Is Already Here, Scenes from a Man-Made World.
Pessimistic but fascinating and highly readable snapshot of the zeitgeist of 50s America.
www.amazon.co.uk
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: The Futurist Cookbook
Nothing really to do with futurism or cooking as we know it, but great for dinner party conversation.
www.amazon.co.uk
Mead, Margaret: The World Ahead, An Anthropologist Anticipates the
Future
Little known collection of her essays and speeches on anticipatory anthropology.
www.amazon.co.uk
Naisbitt, John
If you read anything, go for his classic
Megatrends
to see what all the fuss was about and his most recent
Mind Set!
Schwartz, Peter: The Art of the Long View
Doubleday, New York, 1991.
Good, readable examples of scenario planning.
For the Global Business Network see www.gbn.com.
www.amazon.co.uk
Sterling, Bruce: Tomorrow Now.
A lively introduction to the dilemmas and difficulties of modern day futurism,
and a look at how we live today by a science fiction writer with his futurist hat on.
www.amazon.co.uk
Toffler, Alvin: The Futurists
A great overview of the thinking of the key futurists of the 1950s and 1960s.
www.amazon.co.uk
Wells, H.G.: Journalism and Prophecy, 1893-1946
An Anthology by W.Warren Wagar. Excellent selection of Wells’ writings, rantings and predictions.
Another alternative to the classics, is
Discovery of the Future
,
which outs him as a futurist, edited and introduced by Patrick Parrinder.
www.amazon.co.uk
Wood, Michael: The Road to Delphi, The Life and Afterlife of Oracles
Poetic and almost painterly look the history of oracles.
www.amazon.co.uk
