The Future of War?

July 10, 2007 3:48 AM

Help me find a series of illustrated children's hardcover books from the 70s/80s about the upcoming technologies of "The Future"

When I was 7 or 8 ('87-'88) I remember my grade school library had a whole series of illustrated hardcover books - big and thin (30-60 pages, say) covering the future of various topics. Future of flight, future of space travel, future of robotics, etc. The future of war was a particular standout as it had a very vivid illustration of two robotic hovertanks in combat - I believe it was on the front cover as well. That's the specific one I'm looking for but I'm after the whole series if possible.

Things I'm less sure about, some of these may be red herrings: I seem to recall all the books generally had a white cover (fairly sure of this) with a blue seriffed font for the title (not as sure about this), and all the titles ran along a basic theme that was literally like "The Future of War" "The Future of Robotics", etc. etc.

The art was particularly well-rendered, and generally didn't fall into the category of cheesy 50s-60s space art. Anybody have any ideas?

posted by Ryvar to media & arts (11 comments total)

Related, from the other day.
posted by peacay at 4:54 AM on July 10, 2007

Do you mean 'The Usborne Book of the Future' (Image heavy link)?

I seem to remember someone posted scans of them all a few months ago but I can't find the link now.
posted by Z303 at 4:56 AM on July 10, 2007

Assuming it's none of the books from peacay's link, it might be the Tomorrow's World Series. If so, eBay has a few, and here's a partial list of titles and Amazon has some too, like Lasers in Action, Medicine in the Future, Living in the Future, The Robot Age, etc.
posted by iconomy at 4:57 AM on July 10, 2007

Have you tried checking out the Paleofuture blog, too?
posted by danhon at 5:17 AM on July 10, 2007

Z303 posted: Do you mean 'The Usborne Book of the Future' (Image heavy link)?

Wow, I almost didn't click on that link because of the domain name.

I have a big book that I think is the one you are looking for. I'll take a look when I get home tonight and maybe try to find the illustration you are looking for.
posted by JJ86 at 5:50 AM on July 10, 2007

Maybe not what you're looking for, but the Terran Trade Authority books captivated me in the 80s.
posted by wfrgms at 5:56 AM on July 10, 2007

JJ86 Wrote Wow, I almost didn't click on that link because of the domain name.

I know, but websense here at work let me access it.
posted by Z303 at 7:01 AM on July 10, 2007

It was the Usborne one. Thank you so much, Z303. These used to be published as separate books, and there was a specific Future of War one, but really this is the starting point I needed. JJ86 anything further you could dig up on this would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks a ton all of you.
posted by Ryvar at 12:24 PM on July 10, 2007

AHA! Here's the war one. Mission accomplished, thanks again everyone.
posted by Ryvar at 12:42 PM on July 10, 2007

Awesome! I didn't know they made future books. I only had/have their ancient history ones (red serif font.)
posted by cobaltnine at 2:36 PM on July 10, 2007

I have the Robotics and Future Cities ones. Note that these also deal heavily with warfare from their cold war era perspective.
posted by bystander at 8:45 PM on July 10, 2007