{"product_id":"the-future-is-fiction-stacey-margolis-9780197839584","title":"The Future Is Fiction: A Cultural History of Intergenerational Justice","description":"\u003cem\u003eThe Future is Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e is the first cultural history of the idea that people have an obligation to protect the world for future generations. While political philosophers have regarded intergenerational justice as an important field of study since the 1970s, the history of modern forms of obligation to the future has received almost no attention. This book traces the evolution of the Anglo-American concept of intergenerational justice, from its origins in eighteenth-century democratic revolutions to its flourishing in the 2000s. Thus, it illuminates the contours of a political conviction that has shaped modern culture. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMargolis's central claim is twofold: first, that fiction's capacity to imagine counterfactual worlds has made the most significant contribution to contemporary understandings of intergenerational justice; and second, that this contribution has been misunderstood. Rather than inspiring political change, fiction demonstrates that complex societies will inevitably clash over what counts as a good future and what should be done to bring this future into being. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom nineteenth-century utopian novels like James Fenimore Cooper's \u003cem\u003eThe Crater \u003c\/em\u003eand Mary E. Bradley Lane's \u003cem\u003eMizora\u003c\/em\u003e, to post-nuclear war dystopias, like Russell Hoban's \u003cem\u003eRiddley Walker\u003c\/em\u003e, and Walter Miller's \u003cem\u003eA Canticle for Leibowitz\u003c\/em\u003e, to recent fiction about endangered children like Toni Morrison's \u003cem\u003eParadise\u003c\/em\u003e, Suzanne Collins's \u003cem\u003eThe Hunger Games\u003c\/em\u003e, and Kazuo Ishiguru's \u003cem\u003eNever Let Me Go\u003c\/em\u003e, the tradition of future-oriented fiction recognizes that our obligation to the future is not the solution to an ethical problem, but an ethical dilemma in its own right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Stacey Margolis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0197839584\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780197839584\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/17\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 246\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.63d","brand":"Stacey Margolis","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48742994575615,"sku":"9780197839584","price":105.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-future-is-fiction-stacey-margolis-9780197839584","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}