Looking Forward
Prediction and Uncertainty in Modern America
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Introduction: Crisis of Certainty
1 • Cotton Guesses
2 • The Daily “Probabilities”
3 • Weather Prophecies
4 • Economies of the Future
5 • Promises of Love and Money
Epilogue: Specters of Uncertainty
Archival Collections
Primary Source Databases
Index
"Jamie L. Pietruska is among the first historians to ask how ordinary people participated in the 'probabilistic revolution,' modern science's reckoning with the unpredictable nature of the physical universe. Looking Forward paints a lively picture of the introduction of probabilistic reasoning into everyday life circa 1900. It reveals a culture of prediction that arose in the interstices where personal choices met the marketing of expert knowledge. Pietruska argues that scientists' quests to look into the future were shaped by popular demand. Concluding with a tour-de-force commentary on the predictive debacle of the 2016 presidential election, Looking Forward examines how and why Americans have come to rely on forecasts that regularly fail them."
Earth Sciences: Meteorology
Economics and Business: Economics--Agriculture and Natural Resources
History: American History | History of Ideas | History of Technology
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.