Book Review: The Next 100 Years

George Friedman began this striking view of the next 100 years by recapping the 100 years between 1900 and 2000 in 5 snapshots spaced 20 years apart. This opening chapter alone make the book a great read - one friend described this as "The greatest opening I had read in a while."

What makes a recap of history so compelling ? By taking the snapshots in 1920, 1940, 1960 and 1980 he poses the simple question - what would you extrapolate from a snapshot of these facts ? Then he does just that, and it really points out how wrong one would always be by just assuming that the status quo trends would continue. A fascinating read.

Then he embarks on his own predictions of the next 100 years, and comes to some startling conclusions. I won't give them away here, but there's plenty here to make you scratch your head for a while.

There's also plenty here for anyone who just enjoys taking potshots at people who guess wrong, because the author himself points out that many of his predictions are surrogates for what may or may not take place, but he promises that whatever it is that does happen, it won't be just a continuation of whatever was the status quo in the previous decades.

The End Of US Domination ?

If you are looking for a thought provoking read, this book is a great way to spend some time thinking about the forces at play in our world. And if you're thinking that the world is going to become dominated by other than the United States in this coming century, you'll need to find another book to back you up because this one says we're just starting our long reign at the top.

I borrowed this book from a friend. Now I'll start looking for a copy in the used book stores for my own bookshelf, because there's no way I could absorb it all in one reading. Recommended.

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman, Doubleday