The Year 3000

In 1897, Mantegazza (1831–1910) offered a fanciful utopian speculation about the year 3000, imagining a unified Europe, world peace, an elimination of illness, and sophisticated technology. Readers follow a couple—Paolo and Maria—through a Dante-esque tour of this would-be future, exploring differing governmental models and taking a methodical look at the finance, health, and culture of the civilization of the future. Some of the technologies Mantegazza predicted include CAT scans, credit cards, and airplanes, and his forecast for societal attitudes toward divorce and abortion are decidedly ahead of his time. Jacobson's translation is strong, even if Mantegazza is more interested in presenting his ideas than in crafting a work of literature. While Mantegazza's more controversial views on, say, eugenics, can be off-putting, the book is a neat exercise, more for its ideas than its artistic value. (Nov.)