Future Shock by Alvin Toffler Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Future Shock
Book Review: AN AMERICAN CLASSIC - A MUST READ!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of Toffler's early works, it is a classic, and will never be obselete.
It is a must read. Toffler identified issues of change and how change affects every aspect of society. It is a must read for anyone interested in Sociology or Economics. He also writes in a style that is interesting and easy to understand. You will not be disappointed.
This work is foundational to the social sciences. ALL of his works are vital reading. I wish that he would grapple with the current issues facing America.
Book Review: AWESOME, UNBELIEVEABLE INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE FROM '71 VIEW
Summary: 5 Stars
Future Shock - Alvin Toffler 1971Normally I can go on and on, but I won't. I'll make this short and sweet. I first read Future Shock back in 1971 when I was a sophmore in high school growing up in CT. My first thought was, oh no - another boring book and I never heard of this guy.
Well, to my amazement I started reading the book that evening after * baseball practice (*which is the only thing that mattered to me at that time).
I was fascinated by Mr. Toffler's look into the future and what he perceived would become of our society as we knew it than. (I grew up in a small rural town in CT and nothing much out of the normal happened - except for when Will's Pizza Parlor closed on main st, because his cow's had escaped from his little farm and we had to round them up - excitement PLUS). Enough said, I have read the several times over the years and am amazed at the insight Mr. Toffler had and saddened at the fact that a lot of what he predicted is now a "reality." He's truly a great author and has tremendous insight in society. It would be an honor to meet him and have my "original" book signed, someday.
I don't thing anybook I have ever read, had such a tremendous impact on me or my family ... I kept telling them about the book - chapter-by-chapter.
Enough said, take care and "KEEP ON READING ...
Book Review: Amazingly Accurate!
Summary: 5 Stars
I read Future Shock immediately before reading Alvin and Heidi Toffler's latest book: Revolutionary Wealth. I am fascinated with thoughtful predictions of the future. Knowing the accuracy of the predictions he made about the future in Future Shock (which was first Published in 1970) would provide a good indication of how accurate
I found the book extremely interesting, insightful, and well researched. It was scary at times, but upbeat at others. It discusses where we are headed as a society (from a 1970 perspective), and what lies ahead. It covers subjects such as: the throw away society, the fractured family, education of the future, the diversity of life styles, the origins of over choice, cloning and much more. Many of these topics are today's headlines...not bad for peeking into a crystal ball back in 1970!
At times I caught myself thinking "there is nothing new here; Toffler is just eloquently describing today's society." Then I realized when the book was written.
Toffler has an amazing ability to look at the very beginning of trends and then extrapolate a future out of those trends. His predications come from interviews with many world experts. Toffler then uses his critical thinking skills to integrating everything he has learned. From this knowledge he constructs a vision of the future. Not only that, he provides options we should consider to create a positive future for ourselves.
It is amazing enough to predict the future relatively accurately. By providing us with options, Toffler completed this masterpiece of writing.
Some of the predications Toffler made didn't come to pass. That's to be expected. There are so many that have come to pass that it makes this book a powerful work.
Flash forward:
When I read Revolutionary Wealth I paid close attention to what is in store for us in the next 30 years. Once again Toffler hits a home run. The future will be amazing and we have more control than we think to make it great!
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
Revolutionary Wealth
Book Review: Amazingly Accurate!
Summary: 5 Stars
I read Future Shock immediately before reading Alvin and Heidi Toffler's latest book: Revolutionary Wealth. I am fascinated with thoughtful predictions of the future. Knowing the accuracy of the predictions he made about the future in Future Shock (which was first Published in 1970) would provide a good indication of how accurate
I found the book extremely interesting, insightful, and well researched. It was scary at times, but upbeat at others. It discusses where we are headed as a society (from a 1970 perspective), and what lies ahead. It covers subjects such as: the throw away society, the fractured family, education of the future, the diversity of life styles, the origins of over choice, cloning and much more. Many of these topics are today's headlines...not bad for peeking into a crystal ball back in 1970!
At times I caught myself thinking "there is nothing new here; Toffler is just eloquently describing today's society." Then I realized when the book was written.
Toffler has an amazing ability to look at the very beginning of trends and then extrapolate a future out of those trends. His predications come from interviews with many world experts. Toffler then uses his critical thinking skills to integrating everything he has learned. From this knowledge he constructs a vision of the future. Not only that, he provides options we should consider to create a positive future for ourselves.
It is amazing enough to predict the future relatively accurately. By providing us with options, Toffler completed this masterpiece of writing.
Some of the predications Toffler made didn't come to pass. That's to be expected. There are so many that have come to pass that it makes this book a powerful work.
Flash forward:
When I read Revolutionary Wealth I paid close attention to what is in store for us in the next 30 years. Once again Toffler hits a home run. The future will be amazing and we have more control than we think to make it great!
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
Book Review: Another outdated idea from the Sixties.
Summary: 2 Stars
Toffler coined the phrase "future shock" to describe the discomfiture of Americans who had grown up before the Second World War and felt overwhelmed by the economic, technological and social changes sweeping over the U.S. by the late 1960's. For example, my father, born in 1927 (the year Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic), grew up in a world before antibiotics, computers, nuclear power, jet travel, space lauches, etc. entered the material culture. He didn't get to see his first television broadcast until well into his 20's. So perhaps by the late 1960's he could have felt "future shock."
I, by contrast, entered the world in 1959, and all of these things have existed in my environment in one way or another since then. A lot of the stuff considered "cutting edge" these days derives from ideas already worked out by the 1970's, though instantiated perhaps in unforeseen ways. The world I see around me in the early 21st Century hasn't really changed that much since my teens. It already sounds "retro" to refer to our time as the Jet/Atomic/Space/Information Age. And we still have to struggle with a lot of chronic problems that we haven't solved through technological progress, like dependence on fossil fuels, even though we should have learned our lesson from what happened to the U.S. in the 1970's.
So where do I find all this "future shock" Toffler expects me to feel? Toffler's "classic" book reminds me of similar meretricious intellectual fads from the 1960's that few people take seriously these days, like the belief that the drug-tripping Counterculture would inaugurate a utopian society and nonsense of that sort. I suppose it has some historical interest as popular intellectualism from that era, along with books by the likes of Herbert Marcuse, Timothy Leary and Abraham Maslow. But it really doesn't describe the sort of world we live in.