Polak, Fred
Entry updated 16 March 2026. Tagged: Author, Critic.
(1907-1985) Dutch company director, government advisor, politician, sociologist, historian and author whose 1946 PhD thesis was largely concerned with Futures Studies (which see), a field in which he is regarded as a significant pioneer. His futurological magnum opus is De toekomst is verleden tijd ["The Future Is Past Time"] (1955 2vols; trans Elise Boulding as The Image of the Future 1961 2vols; trans cut 1973), described in this encyclopedia's entry for Futures Studies as "a work of massive scholarship, a macrohistory of Western Civilization in which Polak attempts to demonstrate that all the great periods of social transformation in the past, from classical Greece to the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and on to the rise of parliamentary democracies were preceded and accompanied by the development of positive images of future possibilities that acted to guide and motivate change". Unfortunately only two examples of Polak's considerable oeuvre have been translated into English, the second being Prognostica: Wordende wetenschap schouwt en schept de toekomst (1968 2vols; cut 1969; anon trans as Prognostics: A Science in the Making Surveys and Creates the Future 1971). This too is a work of vast scope and erudition. [DRL]
see also: Far Future; Utopias.
Frederik Lodewijk Polak
born Amsterdam, Netherlands: 21 May 1907
died Wassenaar, Netherlands: 17 September 1985
works (translated only)
- De toekomst is verleden tijd ["The Future Is Past Time"] (Amsterdam, Netherlands: De Haan, 1955) [nonfiction: published in two volumes: hb/]
- The Image of the Future (Leydon, Netherlands: A W Sythoff/New York: Oceana Publications, 1961) [nonfiction: published in two volumes: trans by Elise Boulding of the above: hb/]
- The Image of the Future (Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, 1973) [nonfiction: cut version of the above trans: hb/]
- The Image of the Future (Leydon, Netherlands: A W Sythoff/New York: Oceana Publications, 1961) [nonfiction: published in two volumes: trans by Elise Boulding of the above: hb/]
- Prognostica: Wordende wetenschap schouwt en schept de toekomst (Deventer, Netherlands: Uitgeverij Kluwer, 1968) [nonfiction: published in two volumes: hb/]
- Prognostica: Wordende wetenschap schouwt en schept de toekomst (Deventer, Netherlands: Uitgeverij Kluwer, 1969) [nonfiction: cut version of the above: edited by Henri van Praag: binding unknown/]
- Prognostics: A Science in the Making Surveys and Creates the Future (Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, 1971) [nonfiction: anon trans of the above: hb/]
- Prognostica: Wordende wetenschap schouwt en schept de toekomst (Deventer, Netherlands: Uitgeverij Kluwer, 1969) [nonfiction: cut version of the above: edited by Henri van Praag: binding unknown/]
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