Editing Future history (section)

== History ==
''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'' calls ''The Ruins; Or, a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires'', by [[Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney]] (published in 1791) probably the first recognizable future history.<ref name= "SFE Future Histories">{{cite encyclopedia |title= Future Histories |encyclopedia= The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |edition = Fourth |date= 2021 |last= Langford |first= David |author-link= David Langford |editor1-last= Clute |editor1-first= John |editor1-link= John Clute |editor2-last= Langford |editor2-first= David |publisher= SFE Ltd/Ansible Editions |location= London and Reading |url= https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/future_histories |access-date= 11 January 2021}}</ref> In it, the narrator is transported into space and sees the Earth as a whole while its history unfolds, which Volney uses to present his political and theological ideas.<ref name= "SFE Volney">{{cite encyclopedia |title= M Volney |encyclopedia= The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |edition = Fourth |date= 2021 |last= Clute |first= John |author-link= John Clute |editor1-last= Clute |editor1-first= John |editor2-last= Langford |editor2-first= David |editor2-link= David Langford |publisher= SFE Ltd/Ansible Editions |location= London and Reading |url= https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/volney_m |access-date= 11 January 2021}}</ref> It lists similar examples from the 19th and 20th centuries by [[William Delisle Hay]], [[Alfred Döblin]] (''[[Berge Meere und Giganten]]'', 1924 ), [[André Maurois]], and [[Olaf Stapledon]] (''[[Last and First Men]]'', 1930, and ''[[Star Maker]]'', 1937). Some of these purported to be excerpts of a history book from the future, having no personal protagonists but rather describing the development of nations and societies over decades and centuries. Other related classic works include:

* [[Adam Mickiewicz]]'s lost ''{{ill|Future History (book)|lt=Future History|pl|Historia przyszłości}}'' from the first half of the 19th century<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|author=Andrzej Niewiadowski |date=1984 |journal=Pismo Literacko-artystyczne |number=12 |page=84-96 |title=Tradycje fantastyki naukowej w literaturze polskiej |volume=31}}<!-- auto-translated from Polish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
* [[Jack London]]'s ''[[The Unparalleled Invasion]]'' (1914) describing a devastating war between an alliance of Western nations and China in 1975, ending with a complete genocide of the Chinese people. It is described in a short footnote as "Excerpt from Walt Mervin's 'Certain Essays in History'{{-"}}.
* André Maurois's ''The War against the Moon'' (1928), where a band of well-meaning conspirators intend to avert a devastating world war by uniting humanity in hatred of a fictitious Lunar enemy, only to find that the moon is truly inhabited and that they had unwittingly set off the first [[interplanetary war]]. This, too, is explicitly described as an excerpt from a future history book.
* [[H.G. Wells|H. G.&nbsp;Wells]]' ''[[The Shape of Things to Come]]'' (1933) contains numerous footnotes and references to the works of (mostly fictitious) prominent historians of the 20th and 21st centuries.

===In science fiction===
The first science fiction writer to create a future history may have been [[Neil R. Jones]] in his stories of the 1930s.<ref name="Ashley">Ashley, M. (April, 1989). The Immortal Professor, Astro Adventures No.7, p.6.</ref><ref name= "SFE Neil R. Jones">{{cite encyclopedia |title= Jones, Neil R |encyclopedia= The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |edition = Fourth |date= 2021 |last= Clute |first= John |author-link= John Clute |editor1-last= Clute |editor1-first= John |editor2-last= Langford |editor2-first= David |editor2-link= David Langford |publisher= SFE Ltd/Ansible Editions |location= London and Reading |url= https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/volney_m |access-date= 11 January 2021}}</ref> The term appears to have been coined by [[John W. Campbell, Jr.|John W. Campbell,&nbsp;Jr.]], the editor of ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'', in the February 1941 issue of the magazine, to describe [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Future History (Heinlein)|Future History]]''; the issue included a timeline of the stories.<ref name="SFE Future Histories"/> However, a fan had used the term, with "history" in quotation marks, in a letter to the pulp ''[[Thrilling Wonder Stories]]'' the previous year.<ref name="HDSF Future History"/>