The Art of the Long View by Peter Schwartz

A foundational book on scenario planning that teaches how to distinguish what is already in motion from what remains uncertain. For rural regions, it offers a disciplined way to move beyond reactive planning and instead design for multiple plausible futures shaped by demographics, infrastructure, and capital already committed.

Longpath by Ari Wallach

Longpath argues for rebuilding society’s capacity to think and act across generations rather than election cycles or quarterly returns. In a rural context, it reframes stewardship—of land, institutions, and ownership—as a strategic advantage rather than a nostalgic impulse.

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

A near-future novel that explores how institutions might respond to climate change once its impacts become unavoidable. While global in scope, its most relevant lesson for rural regions is how local places absorb, adapt, and sometimes lead when environmental and economic pressures collide.

Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson

This book reframes scarcity not as a natural condition, but as a failure to build and deliver at scale. For rural communities, it challenges the idea that decline is inevitable and instead asks what would be possible if housing, infrastructure, and energy were treated as solvable production problems.

Strong Towns by Charles Marohn

A critique of growth-at-all-costs development that shows how infrastructure decisions can quietly undermine local finances. It is essential reading for rural towns grappling with highway expansion, maintenance backlogs, and the tradeoff between short-term growth and long-term resilience.

Blockchain Chicken Farm by Xiaowei Wang

An exploration of how emerging technologies collide with rural realities, often in unexpected and uneven ways. The book is especially useful for understanding how innovation narratives land in places that are asked to host infrastructure, extract resources, or absorb risk without sharing in ownership.

Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman

Bregman revisits ideas once dismissed as unrealistic—like basic income and shorter workweeks—and shows how they’ve worked in practice. For rural regions, the book opens space to imagine social and economic policies that stabilize communities rather than forcing outmigration.

Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals by Derek Wall

A practical interpretation of Elinor Ostrom’s work on governing shared resources without top-down control or privatization. It offers a powerful framework for rural futures built around commons—land, water, infrastructure, and even ownership—managed collectively and sustainably.