‘A Brief History of The Future’ takes the reader on a time travel adventure through the past, present and future, exploring how the ancient art of prediction has become today's science of futurism.

From Delphi's virgin visionaries, to science fiction writers, pop futurists, trend gurus and evolutionary experts — this book takes a look at the most interesting and influential figures and what their predictions have done for us.

The brilliant, beautiful and sometimes terrifying ideas of visionary thinkers such as Leonardo, Darwin, Orwell and Dawkins have played a key part in influencing our minds, politics and civilization.

Today, futurism is all around us — in institutes of higher education around the world futures studies are a hot subject.

Governments of nations as small as Liechtenstein have shiny new futures departments, while think-tanks and consultants wield huge influence.

Entrepreneurs and politicians are attempting to buy their prefered future and, the question is, do we make the future, or does the future make us?

This unique and fascinating book looks behind the scenes at how tomorrow's trends are being identified, ‘made' and marketed today.

'A Brief History of the Future is wise and witty with great stories about the characters who would see the future and their sometimes outrageous ideas. Best of all it illuminates the past of the future.' - Megatrends

Oona Strathern is a journalist who has worked for fifteen years as a trend and future consultant for many international companies. She writes a regular column about the latest consumer and socio-economic trends in London for one of Europe's leading future and trend consultants, the Zukunftsinstitut.