Follies of Science: 20th Century Visions of Our Fantastic Future

The early 20th century’s futuristic utopian plans for home and work - all here in vivid colour. Promises for the future were made; some sadly broken and some unfortunately honored. While society didn’t get household jetpacks and personal robots, we did get things like the super-fantastic building materials of the future - asbestos, lead and foam. So just what was the utopian master plan for future households during the early 20th century? Follies of Science is the keeper of such knowledge, offering glimpses into sparkling, smooth lead paint covering our living room walls, dazzling DDT foggers killing mosquitoes dead, alchemists transforming atoms into gold and diamonds, homeowners living in The Foam House of the Future, and, of course, commuters blasting away on their jet packs to work. Aptly illustrated with full-colour and b/w classic imagery from such greats as Popular Mechanics, the visions of the future spread across page after page, pulling the reader in to what could have been and what shouldn’t have been.