Prospective History

This painstakingly-researched book examines liberal predictions of the last generation to see what those predictions show about this important element of American political thought. The predictions do not fare well, for reasons that reveal crucial aspects of the thinking behind them. Writers forecast everything from the end of capitalism to twenty more Vietnams; some of the same people who now predict global warming were, in the 1970s, predicting global cooling; and many people expected the fall of the Shah would bring in an era of democracy in Iran. Academic researchers will find the book a unique examination of political theory; conservative readers will find it full of humorous debating points; and even liberals will be led to wonder what went wrong.