`This is an exceedingly long short book, stretching at least fifty thousand years into the past and who knows how many into the future...' So begins Visions of the Future, the prophetic new book by Robert Heilbroner. Heilbroner's basic premise is stunning in its elegant simplicity. He contends that throughout all of human history there have really only been three distinct ways of looking at the future. In the Distant Past (Prehistory to the 17th century) there was no notion of a future measurably and materially different from the present or the past. In the period he calls Yesterday (1700-1950), science, capitalism, and democracy gave humanity an unwavering faith in the superiority of the future. While Today, we feel a palpable anxiety that is quite apart from both the resignation of the Distant past or the bright optimism of Yesterday.

A prophetic vision of the shape of things to come, from one of America's most eloquent economists. Heilbroner gives a penetrating historical overview of how we have thought about the future through the ages, and issues a clarion call to face the challenges of the 21st century with a new awareness and resolve strengthened by the inspiration of our past.

`A worldly philosopher's provocative broad-brush perspective on what the morrow could bring.' Kirkus Reviews