Yesterday's Tomorrows

Although similar in subject and style to the book I mentioned in my previous post, Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future remains readily available, at a reasonable price. Originally produced to accompany a 1984 Smithsonian exhibit, it brims over with gorgeous images from popular science magazines, science fiction pulp covers, world's fair exibits and other sources, all by way of illustrating 20th century notions of what the future had in store for all of us. Atomic powered cars! Cars that convert into airplanes (so easily "a woman can do it in five minutes")! Hurricane-proof houses that pivot on their foundations like weather vanes! Robot soldiers! Furniture you keep clean with a blast from a garden hose! And, of course, domed cities and personal jet packs! As I write this, Amazon has a special offer, pairing this book with Out of Time: Designs for the Twentieth-Century Future -- what a deal!