Publisher's Weekly Review
Attali (Millennium), cofounder and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, offers his predictions for the 21st century in this clunky futurist fantasy. Positing that "history flows in a single, stubborn, and very particular direction" toward "man's progressive liberation," the author projects that course with surprising results. He predicts that the mercantile order that prevails today will exhaust itself within a generation or so and be replaced by a unified and stateless global market-a "super-empire" controlled by an innovative class of selfish "hypernomads." This "super-empire" will lead to extreme imbalances of wealth and poverty that will cause its collapse by 2050-perhaps accompanied by a round of planetary warfare. Humanity will emerge chastened from the wreckage and erect a utopia of "hyperdemocracy" led by a class of "transhumans" -a new breed of altruistic "citizens of the world." Attali's utopia relies on illusory historical laws, and his thesis proves more entertaining than plausible. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Guardian Review
The first third of this "history of the future" is about the past: a virtuoso "brief history of capitalism" that concentrates on nodes of innovation in transport and wealth management. Attali then begins to dream of a near future of ubiquitous domestic robots and dancing sculptures, which comes over a bit like the Tomorrow's World of the 1970s. As we ought to know by now, the future always turns out at once less innovative (where the hell is my flying car?) and more innovative (iPhones!) than anyone imagined. This future gets darker further out, as Attali foresees the eventual dissolution of nation-states in a planetary market ("hypercapitalism") consisting of two industries, "insurance" and "distraction"; then a wave of planetary war ("hyperconflict"); and, if we survive that, the installation of a wise world government ("hyperdemocracy"). The author's prose is burdened by a habit of self-congratulation, but some of his morbidly dystopian extrapolations are fascinating, and the end is even touchingly optimistic. Caption: article-Etcetera30.2 This future gets darker further out, as [Attali] foresees the eventual dissolution of nation-states in a planetary market ("hypercapitalism") consisting of two industries, "insurance" and "distraction"; then a wave of planetary war ("hyperconflict"); and, if we survive that, the installation of a wise world government ("hyperdemocracy").... - Steven Poole.
Kirkus Review
An unsettling but fascinating divination of how the relentless march of market forces will play out over the coming centuries, by French economist and scholar Attali (Millennium: Winners and Losers in the Coming Order, 1991, etc.). In this prediction of the doom of capitalism, written five years ago and updated since the U.S. banking crisis, Attali enlists his considerable knowledge of world systemsgeopolitical, economic, ideological, cultural and ecologicalto trace the progress of market democracy and its tumultuous evolution through nine successive flourishings. The author notes that it will culminate in a terrifying, unstable future plagued by a scarcity of natural resources, ruptured nation states and individuals relegated to nomadic servility under a "super-empire." Attali begins with a "Brief History of Capitalism," wherein he pursues the organizing forms of the mercantile order around nine "cores" throughout history. The author identifies each of the cores by the name of a port cityBruges, Venice, Antwerp, Genoa, Amsterdam, London, Boston, New York, Los Angelesor by the defining technological innovation of the timethe stern rudder, caravel, printing, accounting practices, reed instrument, steam engine, internal-combustion engine, electric motor, microprocessor. The last core, which, according to Attali, began in Los Angeles in 1980, will extend its "beautiful future" only another 20 years, until the markets begin to exhaust themselves. Nonetheless, Attali foresees a possible benevolent end, once collective repulsion for super-empire and "hyperconflict" ensues. Consequently, he writes, "hyperdemocracy" will emerge, led by just, peaceable leaders devoted to the protection of the common good. Well-informed, outr reading from a big-ideas thinker. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Acclaimed for his Millennium: Winners and Losers in the Coming World Order (1991), Attali here boldly extends and revises his global predictions for the decades ahead. But before mapping out the future, Attali grounds his chronology in patterns he perceives in the past. At the center of these patterns stand impulses that have persistently fostered democratic governance and marketplace economics in thirteenth-century Bruges, in sixteenth-century Genoa, in nineteenth-century London. In Attali's analysis (lucidly translated from the original French), Los Angeles emerges as the nexus of capitalist democracy today. However, Attali anticipates an unraveling of American hegemony as transnational corporations perilously sever the ties linking free enterprise to democracy by creating a polycentric empire of commerce that dissolves traditional nation-states. If this process plays out as scripted, nomadic enterprises will enrich a few while immiserating many. World tensions will then be primed for the horrific warfare of armies, mercenary and religious, fighting for resources and dominance. Implacable jihadists have already deployed for such a struggle. Yet Attali remains astonishingly optimistic about long-term prospects for an enlightened world democracy that will safeguard the rights and well-being of all. A readership anxious about the trajectory of world events will find much here to ponder and debate.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2009 Booklist
