Originally published on April 14, 2025 (Episode 403)
Introduction
Historians aren’t usually asked to predict the future. But what if they could sketch out possible futures—based on methods and imagination as much as archives? My guest David Staley has tried exactly that. In David Staley, Visionary Histories (ASU, 2022) he offers twenty “histories of the future,” ranging from artificial intelligence and democracy to capitalism, leisure, and education. In this conversation, David and I talk about what it means for historians to think forward as well as backward—and whether we should take the future as seriously as the past.
About the Guest
David Staley is Associate Professor in the Department of History at The Ohio State University, with courtesy appointments in Design and Educational Studies. He teaches digital history, historical methods, and design futures. This is his fifth appearance on Historically Thinking.
For Further Investigation
David Staley, Visionary Histories (ASU, 2022)
David Staley and Dominic Endicott, Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets (Hopkins, 2023)
David Staley, Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019)
—, Computers, Visualization, and History: How New Technology Will Transform Our Understanding of the Past (2nd ed., Routledge, 2014)
Related Episodes
Alternative Universities — David Staley on speculative futures in higher education
The History of the Future — the first time we took a stab at this topic
Knowledge Towns — David Staley and Dominic Endicott on innovation and place
Listen and Discuss
Are historians wasting their time if they ignore the future? Or should every historian be a futurist? Comment below, and pass this episode along to someone who insists history is only about the past.
