H. G. Wells

On Pierrepoint B. Noyes, H.G. Wells, and the “Superweapons” of early science-fiction.

Could the separation of the Revolutionary War have been patched in the late 19th century? Some powerful men tried...

The route of war-based boardgames from Prussian military headquarters to Gary Gygax’s basement.

Early robots in the US evolved from symbols of revolt into racialized figures tied to labor and the legacy of slavery.

How car-centric urbanism eclipsed the utopian transportation visions that once shaped urban imagination.

A new book explores how Americans came to believe in an advanced Martian civilization at the turn of the twentieth century.

Humans love to imagine their own demise.

Born after the Civil War, he turned himself into its most powerful witness—and modernized the American novel.

How the turn toward “precision” combat promoted endless war.

Sweeping the human story into a cosmic tale is a thrill but we should be wary about what is overlooked in the grandeur.

When editors believed their magazines could change lives.

Superman et al were invented amid feverish eugenic speculation: what does the superhero craze say about our own times?

A story of how Louis Wain single handedly made cats adored by Victorian society through to modern day.

The uncanny realism of Orson Welles’s radio play crystallised a fear of communication technology that haunts us today.

Physicist and writer Leo Szilard was vital to the creation of the atomic bomb. He also did everything he could to prevent its use.

He was said to have gone into decline, but his story is one of endurance—even of unlikely triumph.