Overview

This text explores the kinds of visions of the future current earlier this century in American society. It shows how these ideas of the future illustrate a confidence - sometimes a naivety - in science and technology. Related to this is the fact that the futures envisaged involve technological, rather than social and political, changes. A range of sources are used, such as popular-science magazines, science fiction, world fair exhibits, films, advertisements, and plans for things only dreamed of - for example, the ""videophone"".

Full Product Details

Author:   Joseph J. Corn (Senior Lecturer, Stanford University) ,  Brian Horrigan (Minnesota Historical Society)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 25.10cm , Height: 1.10cm , Length: 19.40cm
Weight:   0.476kg
ISBN:  

9780801853999

ISBN 10:   0801853990
Pages:   176
Publication Date:   10 July 1996
Recommended Age:   From 18
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Reviews

Many books might be commended as entertaining, instructive, or even fascinating. Yesterday's Tomorrows deserves each of these adjectives... The reader is taken through a gallery populated with forgotten industrial prototypes, architectural models, toy ray guns, flying cavalrymen on 'helihorses,' science fiction props from Hollywood and, or course, all sorts of projects and renderings concerning transportation. * Road and Track * Whether it involves gleaming mega-cities, scudding unflawed skies or the inane advertising smile of a man who just loves his personal flying machine, watching Americans look forward is to look back. It is to look at ourselves in our most brilliant and boneheaded moments. Which is great fun. Here, moreover, the fun is enhanced by a cheerful... text and-the real glory-a wonderful abundance of visual material drawn from a Smithsonian traveling exhibit. * Boston Globe *

Whether it involves gleaming mega-cities, scudding unflawed skies or the inane advertising smile of a man who just loves his personal flying machine, watching Americans look forward is to look back. It is to look at ourselves in our most brilliant and boneheaded moments. Which is great fun. Here, moreover, the fun is enhanced by a cheerful...text and--the real glory--a wonderful abundance of visual material drawn from a Smithsonian traveling exhibit. --'Boston Globe ' Many books might be commended as entertaining, instructive, or even fascinating. 'Yesterday's Tomorrows' deserves each of these adjectives...The reader is taken through a gallery populated with forgotten industrial prototypes, architectural models, toy ray guns, flying cavalrymen on 'helihorses,' science fiction props from Hollywood and, or course, all sorts of projects and renderings concerning transportation. --'Road and Track'

Whether it involves gleaming mega-cities, scudding unflawed skies or the inane advertising smile of a man who just loves his personal flying machine, watching Americans look forward is to look back. It is to look at ourselves in our most brilliant and boneheaded moments. Which is great fun. Here, moreover, the fun is enhanced by a cheerful... text and-the real glory-a wonderful abundance of visual material drawn from a Smithsonian traveling exhibit. Boston Globe Many books might be commended as entertaining, instructive, or even fascinating. Yesterday's Tomorrows deserves each of these adjectives... The reader is taken through a gallery populated with forgotten industrial prototypes, architectural models, toy ray guns, flying cavalrymen on 'helihorses,' science fiction props from Hollywood and, or course, all sorts of projects and renderings concerning transportation. Road and Track

Author Information

Joseph J. Corn is senior lecturer in the department of history at Stanford University. He is the author of The Winged Gospel: America's Romance with Aviation, 1900-1950. Brian Horrigan is a curator with the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul. Originally published in 1984 to accompany an exhibition by the same name organized and circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

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