Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?

A relative arrived in America at the time of the 1939 World's Fair -- "Heinz Looks to the Future" -- so this book grabbed me from the start. Also, I have been waiting many years for my personal air-cushion vehicle and wondering whatever happened to that promised world of tomorrow. This book provides one answer, though it's a tad too rose-colored.

Brian Fies draws a marvelous story that threads its way through the race to space. That reaching for the stars now seems to have ended in a freefall back to a planet no longer absorbed by the fantastical future but only by the mundane grasping of an endless succession of todays.

Sorry, I digress. For boomers, this is nostalgia, aching, funny, true. For post-boomers, it's history that captures the show more fears and dreams of people who saw a world torn apart, lived for years under a mushroom cloud and looked always to a better future.

The comic books inserted at several places between the main storyline are terrific. I could almost smell the pulp paper and remembered the pleasure of exchanging a dime at the corner store for the latest superhero adventures.

An incredible amount of research and work went into this book, which is one to savor. show less

Intriguing look at nostalgia for the future we expected & the one we got

Von der Weltaustellung 1939 in New York bis zur nächsten Generation wird ein Bogen gespannt, der die technischen Errungenschaften zeigt, die in diesem Zeitraum ihren Weg ins tägliche Leben gefunden haben. Dennoch wurde die 1939 erträumte Zukunft nicht in die Tat umgesetzt - was viele Gründe hat, einer ist sicher die Menschheit selbst. Manche Technologien entpuppten sich aber auch als weniger harmlos als angenommen, manche Errungenschaften wurden nicht der Zukunft wegen sondern um den Stolz zu befriedigen erreicht. Ohne ein Interesse an Technikgeschichte wird einem diese Geschichte aber wenig geben, da es keinen durchgehenden Handlungsfaden gibt.