Up the Down Escalator: Why the Global Pessimists are Wrong

by Charles Leadbeater (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $18.45

  After the optimism prevalent during the 1990s, with the end of the Cold War and the spread of democracy, the dawn of the 21st century has seen a shift in attitude in line with the emergence of other negative forces in the world, the events of September 11th 2001 a stark example. Charles Leadbeater argues that pessimism is the most powerful ideology of our times, but claims that it need not be so. He offers an alternative vision for the future: that the fundamental forces shaping our society - innovation and technology, globalization and education, democracy and self-government - should give us grounds for optimism.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.25

  The 1990s appeared to be Utopian - the Cold War had ended and democracy had begun to spread around the world. At home, the new economy, New Labour and New Britain declared a break with the past. The terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 however, brought a different, more sombre mood, but one already hinted at by the collapse of the high-tech stock boom and increasing fears about globalization. This text argues that pessimism is the most powerful ideology of the early-21st-century and further, that it is fundamentally wrong. The author claims that the main forces shaping our society - innovation and technology, globalization and education and democracy and self-government - offer grounds for optimism.