A Brief History of the Future

By: Jacques Attali

Narrated by: Alan Robertson

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

What will planet Earth be like in 20 years? At mid-century? In the year 2100? Prescient and convincing, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future. Never has the world offered more promise for the future and been more fraught with dangers. In this powerful and sometimes terrifying work, Attali analyzes the past and pinpoints nine distinct periods of human history, each with its world center of power and prestige, and predicts what the tenth will bring by the end of this century.

Attali foresees the disappearance of individual countries and the dominance of a world government, with democracy prevailing. However, the ultimate, burning question is: Will we leave our children and grandchildren a world that is not only viable but better, or in this nuclear world bequeath to them a planet that will be a living hell? Either way, he warns, the time to act is now.

©2006, 2011 Librairie Arthème Fayard, English-language translation copyright 2009, 2011 by Arcade Publishing (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Worth your time if you are a student of the future

What made the experience of listening to A Brief History of the Future the most enjoyable?

Part 1 was somewhat of a mad romp through history, with the author's particular spin, and Part 2 extended, somewhat, the lessons extracted from Part 1. This is a worthy approach.

What did you like best about this story?

Even though the 'lessons' were far from comprehensive, it is always good to get a new take in case one has missed something critical. Several of the 'lessons' were not things I had heard elsewhere nor thought of myself.

What aspect of Alan Robertson’s performance would you have changed?

The pacing was so slow I had to listen to the whole thing on 2X speed. That worked though.

Any additional comments?

Geography and associated geographic political power has always been important in providing the context in which ideas and industries have interacted in the past. This might prove, as the author suggests, to be a less important factor in the future, meaning that the story lines of 'future history' will not follow geographic political lines so much going forward. On the other hand, corporations, including insurance companies, are creatures of the geographic political power, and are likely never to rise to the level of, much less usurp wholesale in the way described in this audiobook, the powers invested in government. This is particularly true as the power of the rich (esp. corporations) to buy elections through marketing is weakened over time (as is all marketing efforts) due to the 'news noise' level of the internet. Couple this with the ability of anyone/everyone who is interested to get all of the sides of an issue rather than rely on 4th estate opinion leaders, and it will become more difficult over time for the few to dominate the many (at the moment the 2 party system in the USA is a key remaining factor in this domination).

But that is just my take... buy the book and think about the author's approach and the limitations thereof and you will benefit. No book about the future is easy or light or has any possibility of being 'right', but most books represent a point of view that will itself be a factor. This book included.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

feels like a popular mechanics article

The author should have stopped writing when he got from the history lesson to predicting the future. this stuff is ridiculous, sounds like a 5 year old wrote it.

Interesting in many ways

But not necessarily a "guide". Concepts presented are very general, and since its writing some have come true, however many could see these events unfolding prior to its time. Nevertheless it was an interesting read.