The tale of the next Great War, 1871-1914
Subtitle: fictions of future warfare and of battles still-to-come
By: edited by I.F. Clarke.
Contributors: Clarke, I. F.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Syracuse, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 382
Subjects: War in literature; Future in literature; War stories -- History and criticism
Description: This selection of short stories offers a return journey through the future as it used to be. Time speeds backwards to the 1870s - to the alpha point of modern futuristic fiction - the opening years of that enchanted period before the First World War when Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and many able writers delighted readers from Sydney to Seattle with their most original revelations of things-to-come.

In all their anticipations, the dominant factor was the recognition that the new industrial societies would continue to evolve in obedience to the rate of change. One major event that caused all to think furiously about the future was the Franco-German War of 1870. The new weapons and the new methods of army organization had shown that the conduct of warfare was changing; and, in response to that perception of change, a new form of fiction took on the task of describing the conduct of the war-to-come.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [364]-376).
Collection of stories originally published 1871-1945.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : The paper warriors and their fights of fantasy / I.F. Clarke; title: The Battle of Dorking : reminiscences of a volunteer (1871) / George Tomkyns Chesney; title: The Battle of Dorking (1871) / anonymous; title: Der Ruhm, or, The wreck of German unity. The narrative of a Brandenburger Hauptmann (1871) / anonymous; title: La Guerre au Vingtie Siècle (1887) / Albert Robida; title: The taking of Dover (1888) / Horace Francis Lester; title: In a conning tower : how I took HMS Majestic into action (1888) / Hugh Oakley Arnold-Forster; title: The stricken nation (1890) / Hugh Grattan Donnelly; title: The raid of Le Vengeur (1901) / George Griffith; title: The green curve / Ernest Swinton; title: The trenches (1908) / C.E. Vickers; title: The secret of the army aeroplane (1909) / A.A. Milne; title: The unparalleled invasion (1910) / Jack London; title: A vision of the future (1912) / Gustaf Janson; title: Planes! (1913) / Frederick Britten Austin; title: Danger! Being the log of Captain John Sirius (1914) / Arthur Conan Doyle; title: Frankreichs Ende im Jahr 19?? (1945) / Adolf Sommerfeld.