Keeping up with the literature is imperative in any field. It is especially so in the loose, multifaceted realm of futures studies, where there is much to read, much of which becomes out-dated in only a few years following publication. Newer is not necessarily better, but in futures thinking it often is. Books mentioned here have been selected from more than 11,000 abstracts and reviews published in Future Survey since 1979. They provide an introduction to much of the contemporary futures thinking in the United States, but they do not cover all sectors and all issues. The hundred-plus recommended book titles are a start in appreciating futures literature.
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References
1.
1. World Resources Institute, World Resources 1992-93: A Guide to the Global Environment (New York: Oxford University Press, Mar. 1992). This is the fifth edition of a biennial series.
2.
2. Lester R. Brownet al., State of the World 1992: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress toward a Sustainable Society (New York: Norton, 1992). This is the ninth in an annual series.
3.
3. Global Tomorrow Coalition, The Global Ecology Handbook: What You Can Do about the Environmental Crisis (Boston: Beacon Press, 1990).
4.
4. Anita Gordon and David Suzuki, It's a Matter of Survival (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991).
5.
See also Jeremy Leggett, ed., Global Warming: The Greenpeace Report (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
6.
An excellent update of projections is provided by the annual World Population Data Sheet (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau).
7.
See also Boyce Thorne-Miller and John Catena, The Living Ocean: Understanding and Protecting Marine Biodiversity (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1991).
8.
8. Richard Tobin, The Expendable Future: U.S. Politics and the Protection of Biological Diversity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990).
9.
9. Frederick R. Steiner, Soil Conservation in the United States: Policy and Planning (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
10.
10. Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, The Poisoned Well: New Strategies for Groundwater Protection (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1989).
11.
11. Michael Williams, ed., Wetlands: A Threatened Landscape (Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1990).
12.
12. James R. McGoodwin, Crisis in the World's Fisheries: People, Problems, and Policies (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990).
13.
13. Lauren Kenworthy and Eric Schaeffer, A Citizen's Guide to Toxic Waste Reduction (New York: INFORM, 1990).
14.
See also Louis Blumberg and Robert Gottlieb, War on Waste (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1989).
15.
15. World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).
16.
16. Managing Planet Earth, special issue of Scientific American, 261(3):46-175 (Sept. 1989).
17.
17. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, ed., Preserving the Global Environment: The Challenge of Shared Leadership (New York: Norton, American Assembly, 1990).
18.
MacNeill was the main author of Our Common Future.
19.
19. Lester W. Milbrath, Envisioning a Sustainable Society: Learning Our Way Out (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989).
20.
20. Barry Commoner, Making Peace with the Planet (New York: Pantheon Books, 1990).
21.
See also Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr., For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989).
22.
22. Michael Silverstein, The Environmental Factor: Its Impact on the Future of the World Economy and Your Investments (Chicago: Longman Financial Services, 1990).
23.
23. National Research Council, Board on Agriculture, Alternative Agriculture (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1989).
24.
24. United Nations, Global Outlook 2000: An Economic, Social and Environmental Perspective (New York: United Nations Publications, 1990).
25.
25. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1991 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
26.
26. James P. Grant, The State of the World's Children 1991 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
27.
27. Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider, The First Global Revolution: A Report by the Council of the Club of Rome (New York: Pantheon Books, 1991).
28.
Many of these ideas are presented by Wagar in an extended scenario, A Short History of the Future (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
29.
29. Rushworth M. Kidder, Reinventing the Future: Global Goals for the 21st Century (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989).
30.
30. Peter F. Drucker, The New Realities: In Government and Politics/in Economics and Business/in Society and World View (New York: Harper & Row, 1989).
31.
31. Walter Truett Anderson, Reality Isn't What It Used to Be: Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-Wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic, and Other Wonders of the Postmodern World (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990).
32.
32. Martin van Crevald, The Transformation of War (New York: Free Press, 1991).
33.
33. James Adams, Engines of War: Merchants of Death and the New Arms Race (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990).
34.
34. Robert S. McNamara, Out of the Cold: New Thinking for American Foreign and Defense Policy in the 21st Century (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989).
35.
35. Frank Barnaby, ed., The GAIA Peace Atlas: Survival into the Third Millennium (New York: Doubleday, 1988).
36.
36. Harry B. Hollins, Averill L. Powers, and Mark Sommer, The Conquest of War: Alternative Strategies for Global Security (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989).
37.
For a more worried view, see Dennis C. Pirages and Christine Sylvester, eds., Transformations in the Global Political Economy (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990).
38.
38. James Laxer, Decline of the Superpowers: Winners and Losers in Today's Global Economy (New York: Paragon House, 1989).
39.
39. Michael Calingaert, The 1992 Challenge from Europe: Development of the European Community's Internal Market (Washington, DC: National Planning Association, 1990).
40.
40. Robert B. Reich, The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism (New York: Knopf, 1991).
41.
vol. 2, Mega-Cities (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988).
42.
42. Richard V. Knight and Gary Gappert, eds., Cities in a Global Society (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1989).
43.
43. Richard Carlson and Bruce Goldman, 2020 Visions: Long View of a Changing World (Stanford, CA: Stanford Alumni Association, Portable Stanford, 1990).
44.
44. Marvin Cetron and Owen Davies, American Renaissance: Our Life at the Turn of the 21st Century (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989).
45.
45. Richard D. Lamm, Megatraumas: America at the Year 2000 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985).
46.
John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends 2000 (New York: William Morrow, 1990).
47.
47. Robert Hamrin, America's New Economy: The Basic Guide (New York: Franklin Watts, 1988).
48.
48. Irving Leveson, American Challenges: Business and Government in the World of the 1990s (New York: Praeger, 1991).
49.
49. Paul Krugman, The Age of Diminished Expectations: U.S. Economic Policy in the 1990s (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990).
50.
50. Samuel Bowles, David M. Gordon, and Thomas E. Weisskopf, After the Waste Land: A Democratic Economics for the Year 2000 (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1991).
51.
51. Severyn T. Bruyn, A Future for the American Economy: The Social Market (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991).
52.
52. Joseph F. Coates, Jennifer Jarratt, and John B. Mahaffie, Future Work: Seven Critical Forces Reshaping Work and the Work Force in North America (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990).
53.
53. R. Scott Fosler and Jack A. Meyer, An America That Works: The Life-Cycle Approach to a Competitive Work Force (New York: Committee for Economic Development, 1990).
54.
54. Ford Foundation Project on Social Welfare and the American Future, The Common Good (New York: Ford Foundation, 1989).
55.
55. Peter G. Peterson and Neil Howe, On Borrowed Time: How the Growth in Entitlement Spending Threatens America's Future (San Francisco: ICS Press, Institute for Contemporary Studies, 1988).
56.
56. Charles C. Moskos, A Call to Civic Service: National Service for Country and Community (New York: Free Press, Twentieth Century Fund, 1988).
57.
Karen Daviset al. , Health Care Cost Containment (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
58.
58. Joseph A. Califano Jr., America's Health Care Revolution (New York: Random House, 1986).
59.
59. Daniel Callahan, What Kind of Life: The Limits of Medical Progress (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990).
60.
60. Michael A. Stotoet al., eds., Healthy People 2000: Citizens Chart the Course (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1990). Stoto was study director of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Objectives for the Year 2000.
61.
61. David W. Hornbeck and Lester M. Salamon, eds., Human Capital and America's Future: An Economic Strategy for the Nineties (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).
62.
62. Edward F. Zigler and Mary E. Lang, Child Care Choices: Balancing the Needs of Children, Families, and Society (New York: Free Press, 1991).
63.
63. Marvin Cetron and Margaret Gayle, Educational Renaissance: Our Schools at the Turn of the Century (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991).
64.
64. Roland S. Barth, Improving Schools from Within: Teachers, Parents and Principals Can Make the Difference (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990).
65.
65. Derek Bok, Universities and the Future of America (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990).
66.
66. Ernest L. Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990).
67.
67. Forrest P. Chisman, ed., Leadership for Literacy: The Agenda for the 1990s (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990).
68.
This updates and extends Ellul's best-known work, The Technological Society (New York: Knopf, 1964), first published in France in 1954.
69.
69. H. W. Lewis, Technological Risk (New York: Norton, 1990).
70.
70. Edward Wenk, Jr., Tradeoffs: Imperatives of Choice in a High-Tech World (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986).
71.
71. Joseph J. Corn, ed., Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology, and the American Future (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986).
72.
72. Stephen P. Schnaars, Megamistakes: Forecasting and the Myth of Rapid Technological Change (New York: Free Press, 1989).
73.
73. Derek Leebaert, ed., Technology 2001: The Future of Computing and Communications (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991).
74.
This is an augmented edition of The Information Society as Post-Industrial Society, first published in Japan in 1980.
75.
75. Koji Kobayashi, Computers and Communications: A Vision of C&C (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986). Kobayashi is chairman and chief executive officer of NEC Corporation, formerly Nippon Electric Company.
76.
Forester also edited The Information Technology Revolution (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985).
77.
77. Michael S. Scott Morton, ed., The Corporation of the 1990s: Information Technology and Organizational Transformation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
78.
78. David Goodman, Bernardo Sorj, and John Wilkinson, From Farming to Biotechnology: A Theory of Agroindustrial Development (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987).
79.
79. Laurence Buschet al., Plants, Power, and Profit: Social, Economic, and Ethical Consequences of the New Biotechnologies (Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1991).
80.
80. Neil A. Holtzman, Proceed with Caution: Predicting Genetic Risks in the Recombinant DNA Era (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
81.
81. Robert H. Blank, Regulating Reproduction (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).
82.
82. Brian Stableford, Future Man (New York: Crown, 1984).
83.
83. Energy for Planet Earth, special issue of Scientific American, 263(3):54-163 (Sept. 1990).
84.
84. Jefferson W. Testor, David O. Wood, and Nancy A. Ferrari, eds., Energy and the Environment in the 21st Century (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991).
85.
85. Daniel Sperling, ed., Alternative Transportation Fuels: An Environmental and Energy Solution (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Quorum Books, 1989).
86.
86. Deborah Gordon, Steering a New Course: Transportation, Energy, and the Environment (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1991).
87.
87. Bernard L. Cohen, The Nuclear Energy Option: An Alternative for the 90s (New York: Plenum Press, 1990).
88.
88. Joseph G. Morone and Edward J. Woodhouse, The Demise of Nuclear Energy? Lessons for Democratic Control of Technology (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989).
89.
89. Tom Forester, ed., The Materials Revolution: Superconductors, New Materials, and the Japanese Challenge (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988).
90.
This is an updated and popularized version of Drexler's Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (New York: Doubleday, Anchor Press, 1986).
91.
Joseph F. Engelberger , Robotics in Service (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989), which forecasts that service robotics will outstrip industrial robotics before 1995.
92.
Thomas R. McDonough , Space: The Next Twenty-Five Years (New York: John Wiley, 1987).
93.
93. Frank White, The SETI Factor: How the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Is Changing Our View of the Universe and Ourselves (New York: Walker, 1990).
94.
94. Spyros G. Makridakis, Forecasting, Planning, and Strategy for the 21st Century (New York: Free Press, 1990).
95.
95. Peter Schwartz, The Art of the Long View (New York: Doubleday Currency, 1991).
96.
96. Harold A. Linstone, ed., Forecasting: A New Agenda, special 20th anniversary issue of Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 36(1-2) (Aug. 1989).
97.
Harlan Cleveland , The Knowledge Executive: Leadership in an Information Society (New York: Truman Talley Books, E. P. Dutton, 1985).
98.
See also Guy Benveniste, Mastering the Politics of Planning: Crafting Credible Plans and Policies That Make a Difference (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1989).
99.
99. Joseph F. Coateset al., Issues Management: How You Can Plan, Organize and Manage for the Future (Mt. Airy, MD: Lomond, 1986).
100.
100. Philip Kotler and Eduardo L. Roberto, Social Marketing: Strategies for Changing Public Behavior (New York: Free Press, 1989).
101.
See also Lindsay Grant, Foresight and National Decisions (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988).
102.
102. James Allen Smith, The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite (New York: Free Press, 1991).
103.
103. The Futures Research Directory: Individuals 1991-92 (Bethesda, MD: World Future Society, 1991). A companion directory to organizations will be published in mid-1992.
104.
104. Joseph F. Coates and Jennifer Jarratt, What Futurists Believe (Mt. Airy, MD: Lomond, 1989).
105.
105. Michael Marien and Lane Jennings, eds., What I Have Learned: Thinking about the Future Then and Now (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987).
106.
106. The Futurist Bookstore: Books, Videos, and Other Products from the World Future Society (Bethesda, MD: World Future Society, Spring 1992).
107.
A subscription to the monthly Future Survey includes a copy of this annual cumulation.
