History and Future

The book reexamines this long held belief, and argues that the historical method is an excellent way to think about and represent the future. At the same time, the book asserts that futurists should not view the future as a scientist might-aiming for predictions and certainties-but rather should view the future in the same way that an historian views the past.

By David J. Staley

This book includes a fascinating discussion of human social dynamics, as they are shaped by our mental models, our biases and our imagination. The analysis of the patterning concepts and inferences we use to impose meaning on our past and future is especially interesting, especially in the context of scenario construction. -- Timothy C. Mack, President, World Future Society History and Future is a very clearly written book that takes a counterintuitive idea, the history of the future,and shows that it can be not only intellectually respectable but a very useful endeavor. The book carries one along because of its lucidity, the way it relates and uses these ideas, and the manner in which it connects them to real-world examples and problems. The result is something that is entirely persuasive and quite illuminating. -- Brian Fay, William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, Wesleyan University