A Brief History of the Future: A Brave and Controversial Look at the Twenty-First Century - Hardcover

Attali, Jacques

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559708794 ISBN 13: 9781559708791

Publisher: Arcade Publishing, 2009

Synopsis

A best-selling work in France considers what the world will be like throughout the century to come, drawing on the precedents of nine distinct historical periods to predict such future scenarios as a democratic world government and an international community that is significantly impacted by nuclear technology.

About this title

About the Author:

Jacques Attali is an economist, historian, cultural critic, and one of the worldÕs most eminent and well respected political thinkers. For many years a French presidential adviser for finance and economics, he cofounded and served as the first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He lives in Paris, France.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Acclaimed for his Millennium: Winners and Losers in the Coming World Order (1991), Attali here boldly extends—and revises—his global predictions for the decades ahead. But before mapping out the future, Attali grounds his chronology in patterns he perceives in the past. At the center of these patterns stand impulses that have persistently fostered democratic governance and marketplace economics—in thirteenth-century Bruges, in sixteenth-century Genoa, in nineteenth-century London. In Attali’s analysis (lucidly translated from the original French), Los Angeles emerges as the nexus of capitalist democracy today. However, Attali anticipates an unraveling of American hegemony as transnational corporations perilously sever the ties linking free enterprise to democracy by creating a polycentric empire of commerce that dissolves traditional nation-states. If this process plays out as scripted, nomadic enterprises will enrich a few while immiserating many. World tensions will then be primed for the horrific warfare of armies, mercenary and religious, fighting for resources and dominance. Implacable jihadists have already deployed for such a struggle. Yet Attali remains astonishingly optimistic about long-term prospects for an enlightened world democracy that will safeguard the rights and well-being of all. A readership anxious about the trajectory of world events will find much here to ponder—and debate. --Bryce Christensen

About this edition

• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1559708794
• ISBN 13: 9781559708791
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312