The future also has its history: Over time, not only have the specific visions of the future of past societies changed, but also the future as a dimension of social self-organization in general. In an updated and significantly expanded new edition of his standard work published in 1999, Lucian Hölscher traces the history of the future in Europe from its discovery in the early modern period to the present day. He demonstrates how people's forward-looking perspective has conquered ever-expanding future spaces in cyclical economic conditions for more than 300 years, fundamentally orienting our lives in the present toward the future.