An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

21. The History of the Future

February 08, 2021

Description

What is history’s take on the future? Oracles, prophecies, apocalypse, scientific projection. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss them all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
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Books Referenced

Memoirs of the 20th Century

Author: Samuel Madden

Context:

Mentioned as a 1733 prediction of the future by an Anglican clergyman who envisioned ideological conflict between Jesuits and Deists

Brave New World

Author: Aldous Huxley

Context:

Referenced as Aldous Huxley's vision of the future, discussed in context of morality and technology's effect on behavior

1984

Author: George Orwell

Context:

Mentioned as an influential mid-20th century vision of the future about totalitarianism and political ideology

The Third World War

Author: General Sir John Hackett

Context:

Discussed as a book about nuclear apocalypse where the Russians drop a nuclear bomb on Birmingham

Neuromancer

Author: William Gibson

Context:

Referenced in discussion of visions of the future involving computers and virtual worlds

The Road

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Context:

Mentioned as an example of dystopian vision of living in an apocalyptic wasteland

The Histories

Author: Herodotus

Context:

Referenced as Herodotus's great work describing how Greeks consulted oracles, including the story of Croesus

The Decline of the West

Author: Oswald Spengler

Context:

Discussed as early 20th century German writer's theory about the rise and fall of civilizations and the doom of Western civilization

The Clash of Civilizations

Author: Samuel Huntington

Context:

Mentioned as one of the great post-Cold War prophetic books from the 1990s about civilizational conflict

The End of History

Author: Francis Fukuyama

Context:

Mentioned alongside Clash of Civilizations as one of the two great post-Cold War prophetic books