Whatever Happened To the World Of Tomorrow? - Brian Fies
A sweeping overview of how technology, optimism, and the concept of "the future" entranced and galvanized Americans from the late 1930s to today (and a hypothetical future beyond). Through the decades, a boy named Buddy and his father (aging in comic book time) visit the 1939 World's Fair, build a bomb shelter, watch the first rocket launches and then satellites. Buddy reads comics that reflect the time as he wonders about Walt Disney's vision, microwaves,vacuum tubes, transistors, the space program, and more. It's very well paced, crammed with history, from the canals of Mars to Mariner probes to Chesley Bonestell's science fiction paintings. Despite the clear conclusion that America has lost its love affair with science and progress, it ends positively, noting that the idea of progress has involved: visions of grand machine-driven cities has been discarded because what actually happened was a gradual infusion of technology into everything. [4.5]
