uncertain
futures
Americans and
science fiction
in the early
cold war
era
zombies

Resources

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Highslide JS
Legendary science fiction editor John W. Campbell spoke on the UMass campus in May 1966.
Photograph courtesy of UMSFS.
  • Ashley, Mike. The Time Machines: The Story of the Science Fiction Pulp Magazines from the beginning to 1950. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000.
  • Ashley, Mike. Transformations: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazine from 1950 to 1970. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005.
  • Booker, Keith M. Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War: American Science Fiction and Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001.
  • Boyer, Paul. By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
  • Davis, Kenneth C. Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984.
  • Del Rey, Lester. The World of Science Fiction, 1926-1976: The History of a Subculture. New York: Ballantine Books, 1979.
  • Disch, Thomas M. The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World. New York: The Free Press, 1998.
  • Healy, Raymond J., and J. Francis McComas, eds. Adventures in Time and Space: An Anthology of Science Fiction Stories. New York: Random House, 1946.
  • Heinlein, Robert A. The Puppet Masters. New York: Baen Publishing Enterprises, 2009 (original publishing date 1951).
  • May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. Basic Books, 1999.
    Highslide JS
    "TANSTAAFL" ("There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"), a favorite slogan of science fiction fandom, is taken from Robert A. Heinlein's paean to libertarianism The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
    Photograph courtesy of UMSFS.
  • Owens, Larry. "Sci-Fi and the Mobilization of Youth in the Cold War." Quest: The Spaceflight Quarterly 14, No. 3 (2007): 52-57.
  • Pringle, David. Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, An English-Language Selection, 1949-1984. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1985.
  • Radway, Janice A. A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle- class Desire. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
  • Sanders, Joe, ed. Science Fiction Fandom. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994.
  • Seed, David. American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999.
  • Tymn, Marshall, ed. Science Fiction: A Teacher's Guide and Resource Book. Mercer Island, Washington: Starmont House, Inc., 1988.
  • Westfahl, Gary, ed., George Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin. Science Fiction and Market Realities. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1996.
  • Westfahl, Gary. Science Fiction, Children's Literature, and Popular Culture: Coming of Age in a Fantasyland. Westport, connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000.
  • Whitfield, Stephen J. The Culture of the Cold War. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.

Suggested Reading

  • Halberstam, David. The Fifties. New York: Villard Books, 1993.
  • McCurdy, Howard E. Space and the American Imagination. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.
  • Parrinder, Patrick, ed. Science Fiction: A Critical Guide. New York: Longman, 1979.
  • Roberts, Adam. The History of Science Fiction. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006.
  • Rosheim, David L. Galaxy Magazine: The Dark and Light Years. Chicago: Advent Publishers, 1986.
  • Tulloch, John and Henry Jenkins. Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Doctor Who and Star Trek. New York: Routledge, 1995.
  • Warner, Harry Jr. All Our Yesterdays: An Informal History of Science Fiction Fandom in the Forties. Chicago: Advent Publishers, 1969.
  • Westfahl, Gary. The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea in Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1998.
  • Westfahl, Gary. Cosmic Engineers: A Study of Hard Science Fiction. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996.