1997-2001 : la dégénérescence. Une anticipation au croisement de Charles Maurras et de Georges Sorel

1997-2001: The Degeneration. Charles Maurras Meets Georges Sorel In every age, people have tried to discern the future; in every age they have dreamed of creating a better world. Often, without necessarily thinking of the future, they have also expressed points of view which remain very thought-provoking today. How have our predecessors imagined the future? What fears and hopes marked their vision of the future? What lessons can one still learn from re-reading thinkers of the past who, in the form of analyses, essays of anticipation and even fiction, still seem to illuminate “the shape of things to come” as Wells said. Convinced that modern futurists – including those who claim to be scientific – have much to learn from the works of their predecessors, we are publishing: – critical analyses of essays or works of fiction which bear on the future; – works from the past which, without being explicitly designed to explore the future, seem particularly relevant to us today. These appear in a special section called “futurs d’antan” (futures of yesteryear)”. There are two items under that heading this month: A brief analysis of the short novel History of Four Years: 1997-2001 by Daniel Halévy, published in 1903, and a review of the book by Norman Cohn on cyclical and linear conceptions of time.