{"product_id":"a-short-history-of-the-future-9780226869018","title":"A Short History of the Future","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the tradition of H. G. Wellss The Shape of Things to Come  W. Warren Wagars A Short History of the Future is a memoir of postmodern times. Cast in the form of a history book  the narrative voice of the books powerful vision is that of a far-future historian  Peter Jensen  who leaves this account of the world from the 1990s to the opening of the twenty-third century as a gift to his granddaughter. A dazzling and imaginative combination of fiction and scholarship  Wagars speculative history of the future alternates between descriptions of world events and intimate glimpses of his fictive historians family through the ages.  Jensens tale traces the flow of the future from the early twenty-first-century reign of a megacorporate global economy  to its sudden collapse in 2044  when nuclear catastrophe envelops the world. In the traumatic aftermath  a socialist world commonwealth comes into being in the year 2062  followed by a lengthy transition to a decentralized order of technologically mature autonomous societies  many located in outer space. The riveting literary interludes that follow each chapter take the form of letters and documents from the history of Jensens family  evoking the everyday lives of people in the midst of these global-historical events. Here we meet a woman in Brazil whose son is dying from a new immuno-deficiency disease  two brothers comparing life on earth with life in a space colony  and many more.  Neither fiction nor nonfiction  Wagars brilliantly creative work is not meant to forecast the future  but rather to draw attention to possibilities and alternatives for humankind and planet Earth. In doing so  it also serves as an unforgettable reminder that the future is being made now.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67944795570229,"sku":"ByrdShop_0226869016","price":39.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780226869018.jpg?v=1794379117","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/a-short-history-of-the-future-9780226869018","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}