How long does it take to read A Brief History of the Future?
Jacques Attali
A Brief History of the Future by Jacques Attali takes about 5 hours 20 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 20 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2008. 291 pages, about 80,025 words.
11 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 8 hours 54 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 20 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 20 minutes |
The page count is the median across 2 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
"In this international best seller, world-renowned economist and political adviser Jacques Attali predicts how our world will look not only in the coming decades but a century from now. Will there be global chaos, dominated by terrorists, pirates, dictators, devastating droughts, and rising floodwaters? Or will the planet be blessed with peace, prosperity, and greater freedom for mankind?" "While many unpredictable factors could change the course and timing of events, Attali argues that history flows in a single, stubborn direction that no upheaval, however momentous, can permanently deflect. Analyzing the past in order to predict the future, he pinpoints three political orders in human history: the ritual order, in which religious powers dominate; the imperial order, in which the military powers hold sway; and the mercantile order, in which the paramount group is the one that controls the economy. Within the last named, the author makes a case that there have been nine distinct "cores," starting around 1200, each with its world center of power and prestige, and predicts what the tenth will be by the dawn of the next century." "Never, he states, has the world offered more promise for the future yet been more fraught with potential dangers. How we respond to the crises and opportunities that await us will determine what land of world we will bequeath our children and grandchildren."--Jacket.
Subjects: Forecasting, Forecasts, Twenty-first century, World politics, Economic forecasting
