Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future

by Joseph J. Corn, Brian Horrigan

Enormous skyscrapers will house residents and workers who happily go "for weeks" without setting foot on the ground. Streamlined, "hurricane-proof" houses will pivot on their foundations like weather vanes. The family car will turn into an airplane so easily that "a woman can do it in five minutes." Our wars will be fought by robots. And our living room furniture―waterproof, of course―will clean up with a squirt from the garden hose. In Yesterday's Tomorrows Joseph J. Corn and Brian Horrigan explore the future as Americans earlier in the last century expected it to happen. Filled with vivid color images and lively text, the book is eloquent testimony to the confidence―and, at times, the naive faith―Americans have had in science and technology. The future that emerges here, the authors conclude, is one in which technology changes, but society and politics usually do not. The authors draw on a wide variety of sources―popular-science magazines, science fiction, world fair exhibits, films, advertisements, and plans for things only dreamed of. From Jules Verne to the Jetsons, from a 500-passenger flying wing to an anti-aircraft flying buzz-saw, the vision of the future as seen through the eyes of the past demonstrates the play of the American imagination on the canvas of the future.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Art, Architecture, Science

157 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Joseph J. Corn is a senior lecturer in the department of history at Stanford University.

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Rocket ships!

[Tim Lapetino · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of American thinking and popular depictions of the future—in technology, transportation, warfare, and communications. While this book is broad in scope, it is meant as more of an overview, a starting point on the topics. Deeper dives exist elsewhere, but the thoughts and concepts examined here in broad strokes are well-considered.

This book lacks a little bit in visuals, probably because it was meant to accompany a Smithsonian exhibition of the same name. It also was published in 1984, which both dates the ideas and technologies, while also providing an intriguing primary source of the views from more than 30 years ago.

Recommended for those interested in futurism in general. There’s not as much here for the the casual fan.

[Angie Kennedy]

I feel like a liar on this one...I really thought that there would be more photos/illustrations, rather than essays. I didn't realize that the book is a companion to a Smithsonian travelling exhibit. Probably would have enjoyed the exhibit more. I found the font style and size to be too densely packed the way it was printed for me to read it comfortably, so I just skimmed all the illustrations and captions and called it a day.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

a pretty fascinating, albeit somewhat dated perspective on yesterday's predictions of "tomorrow" (now). it was fun seeing some of the wild ideas about what the 21st century would be like. I think the funniest and also disappointing was that we'd have so much leisure time in the 21st century that we'd hardly need to work and have much time for recreation. We all know how that turned out!

[Selin Yyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. I used to refer to this book a lot for my classes lol. Thank you gentlemen for this space age masterpiece

[Phillip Lozano · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mildly interesting review of the past's visions of the future has been done with more aplomb elsewhere, but while it's saving grace would have been the many illustrations, the entire package is undone by terrible, flimsy binding - my copy fell apart within days of ordinary handling. Worse than useless.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing a book but before writing a review, I like going to Amazon and reading the reviews there to sharpen my own thoughts. Most of the time this helps me distill down what I want to write, but sometimes the Amazon authors sum it up so succinctly that I'm thrown for a loop. In this case, the top rated Amazon review for this book is titled "Fun but not enough", and that really does sum the whole book up in four words. This book was written to accompany a museum exhibition, and as a result it's stuck between two poles - it isn't just photographs of old visions of the future but neither is it a comprehensive history of the idea, and ultimately it fails to succeed totally on either level. It comes closer with the photographs, which are quite nice but there aren't enough of; the accompanying text gives enough information to whet the appetite but not much else. There's two other minor complaints I have, one being that the book is a little unusually shaped and hurt my arm after holding it up for two chapters (rest it on the sofa!), and the second being that the book came out in 1983, so there's one section that reads like "Will Xanadu foam houses catch on?!" (Spoiler alert: lol, no.) To be fair, neither of these are big complaints - the book's shape isn't that out of the ordinary for an art book, and being old happens to all of us eventually. Added all up, this is probably not the book you're looking for unless your collection must have every book about the retro future, in which case you don't even need to read this review, so, um. Three stars!!

[Blain]

I find what people thought the future would be like interesting

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful for understanding the ideas and hopes behind what is now considered retro-futurism. Research for The Novel.