SOURCE: Devine, George. Review of The Third Wave, by Alvin Toffler. America 143, no. 9 (4 October 1980): 193.

In the following review, Devine argues that The Third Wave is a thoughtful and skillfully written work, observing that the book may have more of a social impact than Toffler's Future Shock.

Once more, the author of Future Shock is signaling and analyzing widespread change in civilization. This time, the work [The Third Wave] is more readable and provides more cogent examples of the author's theses.

Alvin Toffler's basic premise is that the past decades have seen the firm entrenchment of the Second Wave—industrialized, standardized society—take over from a First Wave of fragmented feudal and agrarian social structures. But now the Second Wave is on the wane, and the Third Wave has begun. Although the Second Wave required three centuries to take hold, “it is likely that the Third Wave will sweep...