ABSTRACT
It is a truth universally acknowledged that stories about the future mirror our hopes and fears about life in the present. But many of the most compelling science-ctional visions of the future are actually based on specic philosophies of the past, and careful study of these narrative futures can provide unique insight into historiography itself. This dual recognition is central to the practice of cultural history as it intersects with both sf and sf studies. Sf authors have long created futures by extrapolating from what they believe to be the key social and material forces shaping history. In a similar vein, sf scholars have long used specic theories of the past to make sense of their chosen genre’s history. Furthermore, as cultural historians, scholars increasingly read sf texts for what they reveal about the social values and practices of the past, especially as these texts conrm, complicate, and sometimes even directly challenge ofcial pronouncements about these values and practices.
