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Popular Mechanics The Wonderful Future That Never Was: Flying Cars, Mail Delivery By Parachute, And Other Predictions From The Past (2012)

by Gregory Benford(Favorite Author)

3.17 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1588169758 (ISBN13: 9781588169754)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Hearst

review 1: Interesting and fun (at times), but not a book many will want to read cover to cover. This book contains pictures and predictions on the future that appeared from 1903 to 1969 in Popular Mechanics magazine. The bulk of the predictions proved false, and are fairly ridiculous. While a few predictions came true, like push-button phones replacing rotary dials, those fall into the "Who Cares?" category and are largely boring. A book where the pictures (unfortunately) are more interesting than the words.
review 2: Brutal and unecessary over-designing of the layout rendered this book a disappointment for me. I can't fault the textual content - although I would have liked more of it. However, visually this book is a mess. I bought it as a gift hoping (not unreasonab... morely, I think) for some of the original Popular Mechanics illustrations to be reproduced. Unfortunately they've just been used as a raw material and abstracted beyond recognition. I would have thought they would have been a valued part of the book's content for any reader interested in Popular Mechanics and design/technology/social history. Apparently the publisher decided they weren't. I do like the way it refrains from mocking the predictions of the past which turned out not to be true, it's still a serious, if lighthearted look at how we thought and what we hoped for the present we're currently living in. Unfortunately, I have to say it's mostly 200 pages of missed potential. Probably interesting to kids but theres simply not enough to it to satisfy me as an adult reader. less

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