- Mass Market Paperback: 560 pages
- Publisher: Bantam; Reissue edition (Aug 1989)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0553246984
- ISBN-13: 978-0553246988
- Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 3.1 x 17.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 824,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The First Wave was the agricultural revolution. The Second Wave was the industrial revolution. The Third Wave is the 'high speed' revolution. Futurist Alvin Toffler discusses how the computer age will radically change each aspect of society with frigtening accuracy. Written over twenty years ago many of his 'prophecies' are evident today. Although heavy-going due to the mass of information the book is extrememly rewarding due to its remarkable thoroghness, accuracy and general optimism for the future of our planet. A powerfully insightful suggestion of things to come.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I decided to reread this book after 20 years to see how accurately it represented the experiences of the past 20 years. How nice a surprise I received when I found that the broad themes were beautifully portrayed against the background of the prior agricultural and industrial economies. This long term perspective made the articulation of the future vision clearer.
Particularly impressive in retrospect is the description of a forecast for mass customized products. The customer "will become so integrated into the production process that we find it . . . difficult to tell . . . who is the producer." One might be reading about someone ordering a computer on the Dell Web site.
Almost equally impressive is the appreciation of how electronic connections will establish horizontal connections.
Key insights related to:
(1) Companies needing to take on full responsibility for the consequences of their actions on society and the environment;
(2) Companies becoming much more important social institutions of change;
(3) Information moving to the center of major decisions;
(4) Government spreading its influence so that business and politics become inextricably entwined; and
(5) Institutional ethics coming to more closely reflect social ethics.
In fact, this is the first book I have located that sees the business organization as the critical institution in making ecological, moral, political, racial, sexual and social change, as well as the usual transactional ones.
The fundamental vision of humanity as seeking a more appropriate civilization that is built around individual choice in coordinating social interests is a remarkably accurate description of the evolution of the free market democracies over the last 20 years.
Realizing how hard it is to forecast anything, one comes away with a remarkable appreciation for Alvin Toffler's fundamental estimation of human potential. He took that understanding, tied technology to it, and found the answer quite well.
After enjoying this remarkable book (for the first time or) again, I encourage you to consider how these same human characteristics will take us forward in the future. How can you facilitate this felicitous development?
Make your actions and those you cooperate in serve everyone's best interests!
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book in the 1980s. Revisiting it now, my conclusions are the near-polar opposite of the other Amazon reviewers.
The future world Toffler describes has the bulk of the workforce working from home, traffic in cities dramatically diminished, literacy as unimportant and creativity being all - boring old procedures, logical thinking and plain hard work being yesterday's thing. This bears no resemblence to the world of 2005 as I see it.
It's also remarkably long-winded and for its size, contains very few truly testable propositions. The first section, an analysis of industrial revolution history, is by far the best section; the rest is mostly flatulent speculation and propositions based on loose and faulty logic. To take the home-working example: yes, we all know that office space is expensive and if a firm could function without it, and achieve the same results, they'd make a mint; the harder questions, e.g. how many people's jobs could be done entirely from home, how companies control their home working employees, how home workers can be given access to all data and facilities they need ... I have both worked from home quite a lot and managed (or attempted to manage) staff who work from home. Outside the ivory tower, Alvin, it ain't easy - that's why the roads are every bit as clogged up now in rush hours as they were when you wrote the book ....
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Insightful
This will be somewhat dated now - but it's pretty well spot on and helped guide me in life to date. Helps explain so much stuff that goes on around us today.
Published on 26 Dec 2009 by L. C. Timewell
A Broad Vision of the Potential for Individualization
I decided to reread this book after 20 years to see how accurately it represented the experiences of the past 20 years. Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2004 by Donald Mitchell
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