Future Wars The Anticipations and the Fears

by Seed, David

• ISBN13: 9781846317552
• ISBN10: 184631755X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-01
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Summary

The subject of this timely book is that body of fiction which speculates in narrative form about the nature of wars likely to break out in the near or distant future. Although earlier instances occur, the origins of this mode lie primarily in the late nineteenth century but writing about future wars continues to this day with notable fiction on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.Ranging widely across periods and conflicts real and imagined, and boasting contributions from the late I. F. Clarke, H. Bruce Franklin and Patrick Parrinder, Future Wars explores the fascinating process of interaction between politics and literature, science fiction and war in a range of classic texts. Individual essays explore Reagan's 'star wars' project, nuclear fiction, Martian invasion, and the Pax Americana among other topics. The use of future war scenarios in military planning dates back to the nineteenth century. Future Wars concludes with an assessment by an officer in the U.S. Army of the continuing usefulness of future wars fiction.

Author Biography

David Seed is Professor of English at the University of Liverpool. He is the editor of The Blackwell Companion to Science Fiction (2005) and (with Susan Castillo) American Travel and Empire (Liverpool University Press, 2009); author of Cinematic Fictions (Liverpool University Press, 2009) and brainwashing: The Fictions of Mind Control (Kent State University Press, 2004).

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Future-War Fiction: The First Main Phase, 1871-1900	p. 9
How America's Fictions of Future War Have Changed the World	p. 32
War Is Peace: Conscription and Mobilization in the Modern Utopia	p. 50
From Invasion to Liberation: Alternative Visions of Mars, Planet of War	p. 66
John Henry Palmer's The Invasion of New York, or, How Hawaii Was Annexed: Political Discourse and Emergent Mass Culture in 1897	p. 85
John Wyndham's World War III and his Abandoned Fury of Creation Trilogy	p. 103
Prophesying Neocolonial Wars in 1950s American Science Fiction	p. 130
On the Beach: British Nuclear Fiction and the Spaces of Empire's End	p. 144
Adapting the Absurd Apocalypse: Eugene Burdick's and Harvey Wheeler's Fail-Safe and its Cinematic Progeny	p. 161
The Strategic Defence Initiative: A Utopian Fantasy	p. 180
When All Wars Are Done: The Transcendent Humanity of Iain M. Banks	p. 201
'The Benefit and the Handicap of Hindsight': Modelling Risk and Reassessing Future - War Fiction after the 9/11 - Induced Shift to a US National Security Strategy of Pre-emptive Attach	p. 218
The War after Next: Anticipating Future Conflict in the New Millennium	p. 246
The Writings of I. F. Clarke: A Checklist	p. 267
Bibliography	p. 273
Index	p. 294
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