"Born in the first year of the 20th century, it is fitting that Margaret Mead should have been one of the first anthropologists to use anthropological analysis to study the future course of human civilization. This volume collects, for the first time, twenty five of her most prescient writings on the future of humanity and how humans can shape that future through purposeful action. For Mead, the study of the future grew naturally out of her lifelong interest in processes of change."--Jacket.