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Revisiting A Prominent British Politician’s Predictions For The Future Made In 1930

A former leader in English politics was both eerily accurate and also totally missed the mark at times with his predictions from nearly a century ago

Andrew Martin
4 min readMay 12, 2023

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It can be very entertaining to see what people predict will occur in the future. It can be even more fun to revisit such forecasts years later to see where they hit the mark and where they were far off base. In 1930, prominent British politician F.E. Smith wrote a book where he shared his thoughts on what the world would be like 100 years into the future. Looking back at his conclusions is a fascinating glimpse into how society has evolved (and not) over the past century.

F.E. (Frederick Edwin) Smith, the 1st Earl of Birkenhead, was born in 1872. As an adult, he became an influential conservative politician, including holding the office of Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. He was considered a great speaker with an abundance of opinions, who counted Winston Churchill as one of his dearest friends.

In 1930, shortly before his September 30th death at the age of 58, he published a book called The World in 2030 A.D. In it, he gave a number of opinions about what he believed the world would look like a century…

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .

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