Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century

This work is an attempt to look beyond science fiction as a series of texts and authors, and to try to see it for what it is - a peculiarly 20th-century genre of literature, which tries to make sense of the changes which science and technology has brought to modern society. It is also a cultural phenomenon which had had a considerable impact upon the way in which people view the world and their place in it.;The book traces science fiction from the 19th century, through the establishment of American domination of the field after 1945, to the large-scale industry which it has now become. It also examines the special pleasures experienced by the science fiction reader, and the way in which this has brought into existence a community of readers and writers. Edward James is the editor of "Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction" and the first volume of "The New Cambridge Medieval History".