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Synopsis
The early 20th century's futuristic utopian plans for home and work - all here in vivid colour. Promises for the future were made; some sadly broken and some unfortunately honored. While society didn't get household jetpacks and personal robots, we did get things like the super-fantastic building materials of the future - asbestos, lead and foam. So just what was the utopian master plan for future households during the early 20th century? "Follies of Science" is the keeper of such knowledge, offering glimpses into sparkling, smooth lead paint covering our living room walls, dazzling DDT foggers killing mosquitoes dead, alchemists transforming atoms into gold and diamonds, homeowners living in "The Foam House of the Future," and, of course, commuters blasting away on their jet packs to work. Aptly illustrated with full-colour and b/w classic imagery from such greats as Popular Mechanics, the visions of the future spread across page after page, pulling the reader in to what could have been and what shouldn't have been.
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9 reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Weak on content
21 Dec 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'll admit to not having high expectations for this book; after all, it is only 128 pages long. Unfortunately, it was really disappointing. There just simply is not enough insightful information here to make it really interesting.
The goal of the book is to look at some of the more ridiculous predictions of the future made throughout history, from giant "land submarines" to jetpacks. But there are two big problems with how the authors treat this subject. The first is that their approach is very superficial--they touch on each subject quickly and then abandon it, rather than grouping them together in weightier themes. It's like eating finger foods, each bite is unsatisfying. Some of these subjects, like mega-cities or massive vehicles, also deserve a deeper discussion. Instead, the authors assert that (paraphrasing) "things are gigantic when times are good" and mention the dinosaurs and large prehistoric insects. That's a rather odd and imprecise statement to make, and although it might apply to biological entities, it doesn't necessarily apply to manmade objects. What about computers? Why are they getting smaller? And are big things naturally "good"?
The other major problem is a startling lack of dates. Photographs, magazine illustrations and diagrams are frequently presented without _any_ indication of when they were made. Is this illustration from the 1950s or the Depression-era 1930s? Isn't that relevant to why it might have been produced? Many of the pulp magazine covers are cropped in such a way that the dates are cut off, which is incredibly annoying. Thus, the book reads like a haphazzardly arranged scrapbook, without any keen insights about how or why people might make erroneous predictions about the future.
The goal of the book is to look at some of the more ridiculous predictions of the future made throughout history, from giant "land submarines" to jetpacks. But there are two big problems with how the authors treat this subject. The first is that their approach is very superficial--they touch on each subject quickly and then abandon it, rather than grouping them together in weightier themes. It's like eating finger foods, each bite is unsatisfying. Some of these subjects, like mega-cities or massive vehicles, also deserve a deeper discussion. Instead, the authors assert that (paraphrasing) "things are gigantic when times are good" and mention the dinosaurs and large prehistoric insects. That's a rather odd and imprecise statement to make, and although it might apply to biological entities, it doesn't necessarily apply to manmade objects. What about computers? Why are they getting smaller? And are big things naturally "good"?
The other major problem is a startling lack of dates. Photographs, magazine illustrations and diagrams are frequently presented without _any_ indication of when they were made. Is this illustration from the 1950s or the Depression-era 1930s? Isn't that relevant to why it might have been produced? Many of the pulp magazine covers are cropped in such a way that the dates are cut off, which is incredibly annoying. Thus, the book reads like a haphazzardly arranged scrapbook, without any keen insights about how or why people might make erroneous predictions about the future.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
The folly of buying Follies of Science
23 April 2007
Format:Paperback
Filled with errors of fact (e.g.,a navy "general", an autogyro described as a combination helicopter and car, etc.)as well as multiple egregious typos. Illustrations (many from old science fiction pulp magazines) lack dates and citations for the most part.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
generation gap?
11 Dec 2006
Format:Paperback
FOLLIES OF SCIENCE (2006) follows a line pioneered by, among others, OUT OF TIME (2000)by N. Brosterman and WHERE'S MY SPACE AGE? THE RISE AND FALL OF FUTURISTIC DESIGN (2003) by Sean Topham. FOLLIES is an interesting booklet, but short on incisive historical contextualization. Brosterman was born in 1952 while Eric Dregni, lead author was born in 1968. Perhaps typical of Dregni's generation are whooper mistakes. Two examples: (1) page 20, the Dregni's refer to US Navy "generals" instead of "Admirals" and (2) in describing a rolly-polly car image on page 27--their description appears on page 26--they say "One continuous window domed the car with little explanation of how the passengers would actually sneak inside this beautiful machine." It won't take the reader using a magnifying glass to see that the car, CLEARLY, has a standard door with recessed handle opener visible in the picture! FOLLIES is worth buying, but there's a caveat--not all of what the Dregni's say may be true since they are a bit young.
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