A History of the Future

A World Made by Hand Novel, Book 3

By: James Howard Kunstler

Narrated by: Jim Meskimen

A History of the Future is the third thrilling novel in Kunstler's World Made by Hand series, an exploration of family and morality as played out in the small town of Union Grove.

Following the catastrophes of the 21st century - the pandemics, the environmental disaster, the end of oil, the ensuing chaos - people are doing whatever they can to get by and pursuing a simpler and sometimes happier existence. In little Union Grove in upstate New York, the townspeople are preparing for Christmas. Without the consumerist shopping frenzy that dogged the holidays of the previous age, the season has become a time to focus on family and loved ones. It is a stormy Christmas Eve when Robert Earle's son Daniel arrives back from his two years of sojourning throughout what is left of the United States. He collapses from exhaustion and illness, but as he recovers, he tells the story of the break-up of the nation into three uneasy independent regions and his journey into the dark heart of the new Foxfire Republic centered in Tennessee and led by the female evangelical despot Loving Morrow. In the background, Union Grove has been shocked by the Christmas Eve double murder by a young mother of her husband and infant son. Town magistrate Stephen Bullock is in a hanging mood.

A History of the Future is attention-grabbing and provocative but also lyrical, tender, and comic - a vision of a future of America that is becoming more and more convincing, and perhaps even desirable, with each passing day.

©2014 James Kunstler (P)2014 Blackstone Audio

I have loved the entire series.

This has been a great series. The story is well crafted. In this installment I think it spends a little too much time on Daniel's story. It is a story within the story. Overall this story is very thoughtful when it comes to imagining what a future with less energy might look like. The narrator is fantastic. If you sink into the story it will start to seem like you are hearing many different voices instead of just one voice actor. The performance is amazing.

5 stars all around!

Kunstler's tale of a likely future is magnificent! The narration is superb. 5 stars all around!

Amazing reader – Well told stories

James Meskiman may be the best narrator I have come across. I have listened to each of the titles in this series and throughout he has maintained excellent character voices, male and female. How a narrator can create such varied and rich voices is amazing to me. The stories continue to be fascinating as well. I’ll be looking into his non-fiction work as well.

Pretty good stuff

I was actually surprised by the end of the book because it was over too soon. I really enjoy the series so far, and hope that the next one is out soon!

classical writing

A vivid literary depiction of a post apocalyptic future. Realistic and plausible unlike every other post apocalyptic books I've read. Trials and tribulations of survivors are accurate and we'll balanced with the joys and perciverience.

Great story, great reading, and characters!

I loved it, great story line. I hated when it ended. I wanted more!

Everyone needs a mule

Very entertaining book with a little fiction mixed in with future reality. Fun read for the dystopian fan.

Better than the second book

The second book should have been called sex and death in a hand made world. This book continues the lives of the strange characters of union grove, but also contain Daniel’s story which focus on the world and former US outside Washington county NY and this is the reason to read it. The second book made my learn more about the author and he is a strange duck but his detail and hypothesis about the near future are remarkable and what have kept me reading the books. That said it’s not perfect and listening to the books often feels like a 19th century story.

Full Steam

Any additional comments?

Jim hits the ground running and never takes his foot off the gas.

He shifts focus a bit in this book, widening the narrative scope and shifting away from some of the more quotidian elements that added a novelty and richness to the earlier books, but aren't really necessary at this stage of the story.

There's an interesting dichotomy happening here, because the book feels rough-hewn (deadlines to be met, and so forth) and it a little more sensational than the first two volumes (they'd like to sell a few more copies of this one), but Kuntsler pulls it off, and occasionally tosses in passages of casually spectacular language that literally stun. I tend to think of Jim as a social observer and critic first, and writer second; that these novels are a tool for making some of his social ideas accessible to a wider audience, but this book, and this whole series, retroactively have come to stand fully on their literary merits. Independent of Kuntler's world-view and prognostications these books are damn fine reads.

The vocal performance is really well done. Everything you want, nothing you don't.

Great stuff

These books offer an engaging and thorough look at a post oil world. 15% of it all is describing food and 15% is describing burying people.