David Goodman Croly’s *Glimpses of the Future* (1888) – The Public Domain Review
The book takes the form of a dialogue, a question and answer between a statesman, publicist, voter, clergyman, social reformer, ethnologist, linguist, economist, merchant, trader, journalist, Nevadian (who talks about irrigation) and Sir Oracle. And some of the predictions seem truly oracular, especially to someone writing in 1888. Politically, Sir Oracle worries about “the accumulation of wealth in a few hands,” how “the middle class… will decline in number,” and a coming era when “there will be no more cheap land.” He suspects that “California is destined to have a dense population”; he believes the US will soon annex Hawaii. He fears Germany above all other countries and speaks of “the coming international war”. In foreign policy, he predicts that “the United States will one day take its place among nations as a great power in international affairs”; Domestically, he worries that the Postal Service will be treated as a for-profit enterprise, when it should actually operate as a public service. He foresees the successful opening of a Panama Canal, suspects that “things are moving towards the emancipation of women,” and worries that daily newspapers will be absorbed into journalistic monopolies. He predicts that the jet-setting age will soon dawn: “If the aerostat became as cheap for travelers as the sailing ship, why could not man become migratory like birds, occupying the more mountainous regions and the sea coast in summer and the more tropical regions in winter.” On gender relations, despite the civilizational benefits of monogamous marriage, he laments that “here in New York we have promiscuity, polyandry, and polygamy,” and suspects that these practices will one day become more socially tolerated. He has no time for a Mr. Fanciful, who suggests that narcotics akin to opium, nitrous oxide, and cocaine might one day allow us to actively control our dreams, thus preventing a third of one’s life from being lost to unproductive sleep.
