My wife and I, unlike many intellectuals, spent five years working on assembly lines. We came to fully understand the criticisms of the industrial age, in which you are an appendage of a machine that sets the pace.

They returned to New York City when Fortune magazine invited Alvin to become its labor columnist later having him write about business and management. In late 2006 the Tofflers were recipients of Brown University’s Independent Award. Then he moved to examining the reaction of and changes in society.

The couple’s only child Karen Toffler (1954–2000) died after more than a decade suffering from Guillain Barre Syndrome at the age of 46. Then he moved to examining the reaction of and changes in society.