The Art of the Long View by Peter Schwartz

In The Art of the Long View Peter Schwartz describes methods he uses for thinking about the future. Schwartz offers scenarios from the oil industry that can be applied to all aspects of life.

Peter Schwartz is the founder and chair of the Global Business Network, co-author of The Long Boom, and author of Inevitable Surprises.

The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski

Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man is a fascinating account of the development of Homo Sapiens.

Bronowski writes about the development of science and how that development relates to the parallel development of man and society.

The Borderless World by Kenichi Ohmae

Kenichi Ohmae was the director of the Tokyo branch of the internationally renowned management consulting company of McKinsey and Company.

In these two books, Kenichi Ohmae describes how the world is moving away from the traditional viewpoint of nations with borders with inward-looking political and economic systems, and moving towards regional trading blocs and networks that make national governmental structures essentially irrelevant to the modern business world.

Fragments by Paolo Soleri

Paolo Soleri has been described as an architect-philosopher. Soleri coined the notion of the arcology—huge self-contained ecologically correct communities of tens or hundreds of thousands of people under one roof. He's chiefly known for his development of Arcosanti in Arizona. This book is an interesting collection of his thinking.

Visit Arcosanti.

Free Flight: From Airline Hell to a New Age of Travel by James Fallows

James Fallows wrote a regular column for Atlantic Monthly. In Free Flight, Fallows discusses how modern air travel has become progressively worse, reducing most journeys to the same speed as autombile travel. Fallows discusses the three groups who are doing something about the problem, bringing about a revolution in cheap, fast, and convenient air travel.

James Fallows also wrote an excellent book entitled Looking At the Sun.

The Immense Journey by Loren Eisley

Loren Eisley was an American naturalist and philosopher, writing on a wide variety of issues. One of Eisley's most profound essays was titled How Flowers Changed the World.

This essay argues that the emergence of angiosperms led to dramatic changes to the planet Earth and was largely responsible for making possible the emergence of mammals.

The Knowledge-Value Revolution by Taichi Sakaiya

Taichi Sakaiya is a Japanese journalist and philosopher. In The Knowledge-Value Revolution, Sakaiya expounds the theory that a society is fundamentally shaped by the things on which that society places high value.

Sakaiya argues that we are well into an era that will, to quote “value those commodities that are in greatest abundance—namely, knowledge and time”.

Given that he published this book in 1985, years prior to the emergence of the InterNet and the World Wide Web into the public consciousness, Sakaiya can only be described as prescient.

The Long Boom by Peter Schwartz, Peter Leyden, and Joel Hyatt

The Long Boom appeared originally as an article in the July 1997 edition of Wired Magazine. Authors Peter Schwartz and Peter Leyden (and Joel Hyatt in the book) argue that the economic boom of the late 1990s has at least another twenty years to run (albeit with minor corrections along the way).

Peter Schwartz is the founder and chair of the Global Business Network, and the author of The Art of the Long View—a. book on the art of Scenario Planning.

Inevitable Surprises by Peter Schwartz

The Long Boom appeared originally as an article in the July 1997 edition of Wired Magazine. Authors Peter Schwartz and Peter Leyden (and Joel Hyatt in the book) argue that the economic boom of the late 1990s has at least another twenty years to run (albeit with minor corrections along the way).

Peter Schwartz is the founder and chair of the Global Business Network, and the author of The Art of the Long View—a. book on the art of Scenario Planning.

Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Long Walk to Freedom is the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Read how Mandela guided the African National Congress through many difficult years, including his own 27 years in prison, under the apartheid regimes of the white government. Mandela finally achieved non-violent victory when president de Klerk ended the apartheid state and Mandela was elected President of South Africa.

Looking At the Sun by James Fallows

James Fallows wrote a regular column for Atlantic Monthly. In Looking at the Sun, Fallows explains the Asian cultures to the Western world and explains that Western cultures need to adjust their views of the way that the Asian cultures function.

Lucy by Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey

From the back cover—Lucy is a tiny lady three feet tall, 60 pounds light, and 3.5 million years old. The author Donald Johanson discovered Lucy in Ethiopia in 1974.

Read his story of the discovery and the subsequent storm of controversy. The book is a fascinating narrative of the field of anthropology. Equally important, it's an insight into the politics of academia.

The Prize by Daniel Yergin

The Prize is subtitled The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. Author Daniel Yergin won a Pulitzer prize for his history of oil, from its earliest discoveries through the rise of Standard Oil and the Rockefeller family.

Yergin recounts how oil was of vital strategic importance in two world wars, and remains of vital strategic importance in the context of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent Gulf War.

The Republic of Tea by Mel Ziegler

Subtitled Advice to a Young Zentrepreneur, The Republic of Tea is a great story of how to start and run a successful business.

The principals of the Republic of Tea call themselves the Minister of Leaves and the Minister of Enchantment (graphics arts, design, and packaging) and so on.

Mel Ziegler founded Banana Republic, the popular clothing store for travellers.

Defect Now! Visit the Republic of Tea and join the Tea Revolution!

And speaking of tea, visit the home page—and of course visit the shop—of my favourite tea room, namely, Tea Time a tea lover's shop on Ramona Street in Palo Alto, California.