The human world is shaped by the imagination of individuals who capture the enthusiasm of others who in tern struggle to make that dream a reality.
This book explores the proposed solutions offered up by some of the great free-thinkers of their day who contemplated the incredible odds necessary to make colonisation and extra-terrestrial habitation a reality one day in the future.
Filled with over a hundred colour and black/white photos and diagrams (with many high quality full page plates) this book speaks in very simplified terms but the ideas are grand and it makes fascinating reading. I found it a pleasant change to read a generally optimistic view of the future, even if many of the 'big ideas' failed to materialise within the projected dates given - illustrated best (on p.29) by one of the members of O'Neill's Space Settlement team sporting a Tee-shirt boasting 'Lunar Mine by '89'.
Nevertheless it acts as a convenient springboard providing a nice overview and back history of a topic which is still as much in it's infancy as it was in the late 1970's.

This fascinating book accompanied the 1978, three part, BBC / OECA (TV Ontario) television series of the same name, but is a stand alone volume in its own right.

Sadly, now out of print. ( )