A wide-ranging and thought-provoking exploration of the importance of long-term thinking.

Humans are unique in our ability to understand time, able to comprehend the past and future like no other species. Yet modern-day technology and capitalism have supercharged our short-termist tendencies and trapped us in the present, at the mercy of reactive politics, quarterly business targets and 24-hour news cycles.

It wasn't always so. In medieval times, craftsmen worked on cathedrals that would be unfinished in their lifetime. Indigenous leaders fostered intergenerational reciprocity. And in the early twentieth century, writers dreamed of worlds thousands of years hence. Now, as we face long-term challenges on an unprecedented scale, how do we recapture that far-sighted vision?

Richard Fisher takes us from the boardrooms of Japan - home to some of the world's oldest businesses - to European laboratories where scientists work as custodians on centuries-long experiments. He examines the psychological biases that discourage the long view, and talks to the growing number of people from the worlds of philosophy, technology, science and the arts who are exploring smart ways to overcome them. How can we learn to widen our perception of time and honour our obligations to the lives of those not yet born?

"Immaculately researched, splendidly written and an antidote to despair." - Literary Review

"Fisher has poured a decade's worth of thinking [into the problems of short-termism] into The Long View. The result is an erudite survey of a subject he believes could decide the fate of humanity ... compelling ... I hope our political class reads and absorbs this book." - The Sunday Times

"In this uplifting and hopeful book, science journalist Fisher explores the folly of short-termism and invites us to revise our attitude to time, to embrace the long view, not as a solemn duty but for a deeper, more fulfilling life." - SAGA Magazine