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Title details for The Future and Its Enemies by Virginia Postrel - Available

The Future and Its Enemies

by Virginia Postrel
ebook
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Today we have greater wealth, health, opportunity, and choice than at any time in history. Yet a chorus of intellectuals and politicians laments our current condition — as slaves to technology, coarsened by popular culture, and insecure in the face of economic change. The future, they tell us, is dangerously out of control, and unless we precisely govern the forces of change, we risk disaster.
In The Future and Its Enemies, Virginia Postrel explodes the myths behind these claims. Using examples that range from medicine to fashion, she explores how progress truly occurs and demonstrates that human betterment depends not on conformity to one central vision but on creativity and decentralized, open-ended trial and error. She argues that these two opposing world-views — "stasis" vs. "dynamism" — are replacing "left" and "right" to define our cultural and political debate as we enter the next century.
In this bold exploration of how civilizations learn, Postrel heralds a fundamental shift in the way we view politics, culture, technology, and society as we face an unknown — and invigorating — future.
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Publisher: Free Press

Kindle Book

  • Release date: May 10, 2011

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9781439135327
  • Release date: May 10, 2011

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9781439135327
  • File size: 2246 KB
  • Release date: May 10, 2011

Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

History Politics Sociology Nonfiction

Languages

English

Today we have greater wealth, health, opportunity, and choice than at any time in history. Yet a chorus of intellectuals and politicians laments our current condition — as slaves to technology, coarsened by popular culture, and insecure in the face of economic change. The future, they tell us, is dangerously out of control, and unless we precisely govern the forces of change, we risk disaster.
In The Future and Its Enemies, Virginia Postrel explodes the myths behind these claims. Using examples that range from medicine to fashion, she explores how progress truly occurs and demonstrates that human betterment depends not on conformity to one central vision but on creativity and decentralized, open-ended trial and error. She argues that these two opposing world-views — "stasis" vs. "dynamism" — are replacing "left" and "right" to define our cultural and political debate as we enter the next century.
In this bold exploration of how civilizations learn, Postrel heralds a fundamental shift in the way we view politics, culture, technology, and society as we face an unknown — and invigorating — future.
Expand title description text
History Politics Sociology Nonfiction