Rumors of war and infernal machines : technomilitary agenda-setting in American and British speculative fiction / Charles E. Gannon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gannon, Charles E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science fiction, American--History and criticism.

Science fiction, American.

Literature and technology--English-speaking countries.

Literature and technology.

Science fiction, English--History and criticism.

Science fiction, English.

War and literature--English-speaking countries.

War and literature.

War stories, American--History and criticism.

War stories, American.

War stories, English--History and criticism.

War stories, English.

Imaginary wars and battles in literature.

War in literature.

Speculative fiction, American--History and criticism.

Speculative fiction, American.

Speculative fiction, English--History and criticism.

Speculative fiction, English.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (324 p.)

Place of Publication:

Lanham, [Maryland] : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This provocative and unique work reveals the remarkably influential role of futuristic literature on contemporary political power in America. Tracing this phenomenon from its roots in Victorian Britain, Gannon convincingly demonstrates that military fiction anticipated and even influenced the evolution of the tank, the development of the airplane, and also the bitter political battles within Britain's War Office and the Admiralty. In the United States, future-fictions and Cold-War thrillers were an officially acknowledged factor in the Pentagon's R&D agendas, and often gave rise_and shape_to t

Contents:

Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction Assessing Rumors-of War and Infernal Machines; 1 Armageddon by Gaslight: Victorian Visions of Apocalypse; 2 Opportunistic Anticipations and Accidental Insights: William Le Queux's Exploitation of Edwardian Invasion Anxieties; 3 Promoters of the Probable, Prophets of the Possible: Technological Innovation and Edwardian Near-Future War Fiction; 4 H.G. Wells: The Far-Future War Prophet of Edwardian England; 5 Hard Numbers, Hard Cases, Hard Decisions: Politics and Future-War Fiction in America

6 An Imperfect Future Tense(d) : Anticipations of Atomic Annihilation in Post-War American Science Fiction7 Nuclear Fiction and Silo Psychosis: Narratives of Life in the Shadow of a Mushroom Cloud; 8 Radio Waves, Death Rays, and Transgressive (Sub)Texts: Future-War Fiction in the Wide Black Yonder; 9 Making Man-Machines of Mass Destruction: Future-War Authors as Seers in an Age of Cyborg Soldiers; 10 Cultural Casualties as Collateral Damage: The Fragment-ing/-ation Effects of Future-War Fantasies vs. Fictions; Afterword On Conducting a Literary Reconnaissance in Force-and in Earnest; Notes

BibliographyIndex

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-7425-4035-9

0-7425-6871-7

OCLC:

857800481