Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War - (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction & Fantasy) by M Keith Booker (Hardcover)

About the Book

The 1950s are widely regarded as the golden age of American science fiction. This book surveys a wide range of major science fiction novels and films from the long 1950s--the period from 1946 to 1964--when the tensions of the Cold War were at their peak. The American science fiction novels and films of this period clearly reflect Cold War anxieties and tensions through their focus on such themes as alien invasion and nuclear holocaust. In this sense, they resemble the observations of social and cultural critics during the same period.

Meanwhile, American science fiction of the long 1950s also engages its historical and political contexts through an interrogation of phenomena, such as alienation and routinization, that can be seen as consequences of the development of American capitalism during this period. This economic trend is part of the rise of the global phenomenon that Marxist theorists have called late capitalism. Thus, American science fiction during this period reflects the rise of late capitalism and participates in the beginnings of postmodernism, described by Frederic Jameson as the cultural logic of late capitalism.

Book Synopsis

The 1950s are widely regarded as the golden age of American science fiction. This book surveys a wide range of major science fiction novels and films from the long 1950s--the period from 1946 to 1964--when the tensions of the Cold War were at their peak. The American science fiction novels and films of this period clearly reflect Cold War anxieties and tensions through their focus on such themes as alien invasion and nuclear holocaust. In this sense, they resemble the observations of social and cultural critics during the same period.

Meanwhile, American science fiction of the long 1950s also engages its historical and political contexts through an interrogation of phenomena, such as alienation and routinization, that can be seen as consequences of the development of American capitalism during this period. This economic trend is part of the rise of the global phenomenon that Marxist theorists have called late capitalism. Thus, American science fiction during this period reflects the rise of late capitalism and participates in the beginnings of postmodernism, described by Frederic Jameson as the cultural logic of late capitalism.

Review Quotes

?[a]n impressive, enjoyable book, and one that makes valuable contributions to the history of American science fiction and to our understanding of the culture of the American 1950s. We should be grateful not only to Booker but also--and yet again!--to the much under-appreciated publishers of the Greenwood Press, whose long-time support of sf criticism is as admirable as it is generally unsung.?-Science Fiction Studies

?[M]onsters should be ordered for libraries and studied by those interested in SF of the post-World War 2 period and the significance of that SF for utopian studies....This is a coherent, generally well-written collection, arranged to offer a collective argument about tje role, or sometimes lack of role, of docters and medicine in SF.?-Utopian Studies

?The bibliographies of books and films are especially valuable....Highly recommended as a provocative examination of the interplay between creativity and cultural pressures, this title will stimulate other such discussions. All collections.?-Choice

?This is a book to appeal to the scholar of science fiction, the social historian, the movie nut, the student of popular culture-- and anyone else with an eye on why we do what we do, and how it shows up in our art. Highly recommended....?-Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

"Ýa¨n impressive, enjoyable book, and one that makes valuable contributions to the history of American science fiction and to our understanding of the culture of the American 1950s. We should be grateful not only to Booker but also--and yet again!--to the much under-appreciated publishers of the Greenwood Press, whose long-time support of sf criticism is as admirable as it is generally unsung."-Science Fiction Studies

"ÝM¨onsters should be ordered for libraries and studied by those interested in SF of the post-World War 2 period and the significance of that SF for utopian studies....This is a coherent, generally well-written collection, arranged to offer a collective argument about tje role, or sometimes lack of role, of docters and medicine in SF."-Utopian Studies

"[M]onsters should be ordered for libraries and studied by those interested in SF of the post-World War 2 period and the significance of that SF for utopian studies....This is a coherent, generally well-written collection, arranged to offer a collective argument about tje role, or sometimes lack of role, of docters and medicine in SF."-Utopian Studies

"The bibliographies of books and films are especially valuable....Highly recommended as a provocative examination of the interplay between creativity and cultural pressures, this title will stimulate other such discussions. All collections."-Choice

"This is a book to appeal to the scholar of science fiction, the social historian, the movie nut, the student of popular culture-- and anyone else with an eye on why we do what we do, and how it shows up in our art. Highly recommended...."-Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

"[a]n impressive, enjoyable book, and one that makes valuable contributions to the history of American science fiction and to our understanding of the culture of the American 1950s. We should be grateful not only to Booker but also--and yet again!--to the much under-appreciated publishers of the Greenwood Press, whose long-time support of sf criticism is as admirable as it is generally unsung."-Science Fiction Studies

About the Author

M. KEITH BOOKER is Professor of English at the University of Arkansas./e His many books include The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism (1994), Dystopian Fiction: A Theory and Research Guide (1994), Bakhtin, Stalin, and Modern Russian Fiction: Carnival, Dialogism, and History (1995), The Modern British Novel of the Left: A Research Guide (1998), The Modern American Novel of the Left: A Research Guide (1999), Film and the American Left: A Research Guide (1999), and Ulysses, Capitalism, and Colonialism: Reading Joyce after the Cold War (2000), all available from Greenwood Press.