Rumors of War and Infernal Machines

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 ficti

Charles E. Gannon is associate professor of English at St. Bonaventure University

Acknowledgements

viii

Introduction Assessing Rumors-of War and Infernal Machines

1

(238)

1 Armageddon by Gaslight: Victorian Visions of Apocalypse

8

(24)

2 Opportunistic Anticipations and Accidental Insights: William Le Queux's Exploitation of Edwardian Invasion Anxieties

32

(30)

3 Promoters of the Probable, Prophets of the Possible: Technological Innovation and Edwardian Near-Future War Fiction

62

(29)

4 H.G. Wells: The Far-Future War Prophet of Edwardian England

91

(21)

5 Hard Numbers, Hard Cases, Hard Decisions: Politics an dFuture-War Fiction in America

112

(16)

6 An Imperfect Future Tense(d): Anticipations of Atomic Annihilation in Post-War American Science Fiction

128

(18)

7 Nuclear Fiction and Silo Psychosis: Narratives of Life in the Shadow of a Mushroom Cloud

146

(27)

8 Radio Waves, Death Rays, and Transgressive (Sub)Texts: Future-War Fiction in the Wide Black Yonder

173

(35)

9 Making Man-Machines of Mass Destruction: Future-War Authors as Seers in an Age of Cyborg Soldiers

208

(31)

10 Cultural Casualties as Collateral Damage: The Fragment-ing/-ation Effects of Future-War Fantasies vs. Fictions

239

(17)

Afterword On Conducting a Literary Reconnaissance in Force-and in Earnest

256

(3)

Notes

259

(28)

Bibliography

287

(5)

Index

292

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Rumors of War and Infernal Machines Technomilitary Agenda-setting in American and British Speculative Fiction

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials