An Inquiry into the Human Prospect - Updated and Reconsidered for the 1980'S (Cloth) |  | Author: Robert L HEILBRONER
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
Category: Book
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Seller: betterworldbooks_
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 7694846
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 191
ISBN: 0393013715
EAN: 9780393013719
ASIN: 0393013715
Publication Date: April 1, 1980
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Product Description
Is there hope for man? That "terrible question" was posed by Robert L. Heilbroner in the original version of An Inquiry into the Human Prospect. In this third edition of a book that has become a classic, Professor Heilbroner leaves the question in place on the first page, believing some twenty years later that that interrogative sounds the themes of the 1990s as well. The main components of the global predicament he described in the first edition are still with us today: runaway populations, obliterative weaponry, and a closing environmental vise. Writing now, in the aftermath of the extraordinary events that caused communism as a challenger to capitalism to vanish "like a puff of smoke," Professor Heilbroner traces out the difficulties that beset those attempting centrally planned economics. He shows how Soviet-style systems became mired in bureaucratic swamps. But he warns that the triumph of profit-driven, market-directed economies will not delay the looming encounter with the ecological barrier. "The absorption capacities of the environment," writes Professor Heilbroner, "whether in terms of the greenhouse effect or the overrunning of other physico-chemical capabilities of the planet" still determine the limits of the economic expansion. Trenchant and unflinching, Professor Heilbroner's look at the sum and substance of our prospects for the remaining years of this century is provocative and indispensable reading for those who prefer not to avert their gaze from the hard realities of our times.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Questions that we all ignore September 6, 2004
C. Brown (Evanston, IL United States)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
This book was written in the 1970's, so it isn't surprising that it has a quality of despair due to the energy crisis, the political effects of the Vietnam war and the social turmoil of the time. The 20 year later updates that the author has added after each chapter greatly add value to his original text, so be sure "updated for the 90's" is the subtitle of the edition you get. In contrast to another reviewer, I'd say the final chapter stands far above the specifics of the rest and would be worth reading now or at any time in the future.
The question is: can humanity survive the coming decades when pressures will come to bear that cannot be avoided? This is an extremely important question to those who live under capitalism (more of us all the time) which admits to no end to growth. The environment will increasingly resist efforts to grow the wealth of humanity as a whole as it is already challenged by the growth in the wealth of individuals (how many cars can be packed on a road when so many want bigger vehicles?) Societies of those accustomed to expecting and demanding more, knowing no limitation on freedom of action other than the need to accumulate money to buy things, will not receive limitations gladly. What would it mean to face the fact that at some point a generation must realize that, no, their children cannot live better than they do? Will one kind of social or political system be better suited to the future than others? Heilbroner's fears are that we will put current desires and comforts ahead of any concern for the future of our kind and will live life to the max until we hit a wall. He cites none other than Adam Smith writing of how self interest puts the slightest threat to one's own well-being far beyond horrors to great numbers of others on the other side of the world. At what point will those without stop tolerating a lopsided distribution of wealth? When limitations start to bite, will democracy hold up or will a "strong leader" be called forth to take control over a multitude bickering for pieces of the pie? to say that growth can continue endlessly is to ignore this and that's exactly what world leaders are doing in the 21st century.
Technology, in this book, is seen for the undoubted good that it has done. But it also steps up the level of consumption and presents new problems that did not present themselves at lower levels of technology. For example, agricultural output has increased due to artificial fertilizer, but now we have the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. A new car pollutes far less due to tech advances but there are so many more cars. In this way, technology can never be our savior because it simply changes the nature of the threats we face. Only if we were to use a tech advance to work its magic without our lurching to even greater levels and variety of consumption would it truly be a savior. Can we ever set a limit on ourselves voluntarily before we lose our freedom to choose to do so? Technology has always seemed to save us, but that's an illusion. It has only given us a series of life-preservers that we continue to overload, in the belief that yet another will be thrown to us by science. We stoutly resist a hard look at ourselves and move on to the next higher level of lifestyle.
The easy out is to label books like this as "gloom and doom" and say that the tide will rise and lift all boats. Nobody will have to do without anything at any time in the future if we just keep on growing. More people can always have more. But we all know there is no perpetual motion machine, particularly one that endlessly operates faster and over a wider field than it did before. But to question the way we live is to admit that something must change and that raises anxiety, so the question is left unaddressed, expecially if things are good...and for those in power all over the world, things are definitely good.
Heilbroner is quick to admit that he doesn't have the answers, but he courageously asks the questions we need to ask and soon. His last chapter is very moving and can't help but make a reader wonder what we are doing to the future by living heedlessly. If it is rational to value something you may have today far beyond a great multiple of that something in the distant future (as economists tell us) then will rationality save future generations of the creature that possesses it?
Heilbroner's productive life was in the 20th century, but he has left us a wake-up call, and a challenge in this book.
 A "sister" to the literary work of the Unabomber's Manifesto May 7, 1999
8 out of 18 found this review helpful
One can be "hooked" onto this book early on in the first few chapters. Heilbroner scores early, profoundly grabbing the reader's attention, with the topics he discusses from politics to the wars that are associated with them in the first half of the book. He is the prototype clone of a knowledgeable sociology analyst, working for your understanding, such as in the aftermath of a military general briefing you about a war the country has participated in. However, he goes on a drought as he enters the economic stages and areas in the latter, sounding more like a collage of scattered brainstorms. The first half is well-written and well-explained within the original text. The critical updating afterword makes it that much clearer and significant. Without the afterwords, this book would not receive its third star from me. The latter half is one big mess, consisting of choppy and vague statements on various issues that are lacking the lucidity that was existent in the first half of the book. It reminds me of Revelation in the New Testament. The afterword neglects its previous job to clarify and justify the direction of the chapters preceding it. Overall, this work of art by Heilbroner is a simile to that of the Manifesto. Although the tone contrasts the Unabomber's by a few degrees, the underlying elements are there: the dangers facing humanity, malignant societal issues, the biological timebomb ticking away, and the question of whether humanity will continue to survive and play the game of life, or make one last swing & strike out. If I was another visitor from another galaxy, this book is adequate with informing me about the yin & yangs of homosapiens. The light of this book, is that it neither plays games or toils with the reader. It's simply a compilation of entities, a "Comet," humanity created, heading to destroy and relocate us with the dinosaurs. I must add that this is one of those high IQ books that puts your brain's intellectual capacity on world issues to the test. You either know what he is trying to get across or you're knocked out in the first round. The vocabulary in this book is that of a higher educational echelon as well. What can make this book better is the revision of the second half: deconsolidation. However, this book never makes you want to quit on it. I do not recommend this book to high school students, but individuals of more advanced intellect and experience.
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