Rethinking the Future: Canada's Liveliest Minds Take on the Twenty-First Century

Leila I. Wallenius is a reference librarian in the J.-N. Desmarais
Library at Laurentian University.

Patricia Elliott has compiled a wonderful collection of essays on a
broad range of topics that question and examine the ideas that we
currently hold. The authors come from a variety of fields ranging from
ecology (Adrian Forsyth ) to chemistry (the Nobel-prize winning John
Polanyi), among others. They address such ideas and concepts as
technology, the information age, ethics, and procreation, leading the
reader to evaluate where he or she stands on a particular issue or how
an issues relates to his or her life.

However, this engaging book deals with more than forecasting the
future; it also, as Northrop Frye states in the title of his essay,
gives us “[t]he rear-view mirror: notes towards a future.”