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Below is a selected bibliography of science fiction titles that contain a great deal of social and political commentary. This bibliography is not complete by any means, and the selections presented below should be considered heuristic examples only. However, it is likely that some of these titles will be assigned to be read by students in the class. A brief phrase describing a dominant theme in the social and/or political content of each novel is appended to each title.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asimov, Isaac. 1950. I Robot. [Artificial intelligence and slavery]

Asimov, Isaac. 1951, 1952, 1953. The Foundation Trilogy. [Utopianism, civilization collapse, individual freedom]

Bear, Greg. 1999. Darwin's Radio : In the next stage of evolution, humans are history... [Political consequences of genetic engineering and artificial human evolution]

Bear, Greg. 1994. Moving Mars: A Novel. [Political independence movements]

Bradbury, Ray D. 1952. Fahrenheit 451. [Censorship, intellectual suppression]

Brin, David. 1983. Startide Rising. [Genetic engineering, slavery, human and animal rights]

Brin, David. 1987. The Uplift War. [Genetic engineering, slavery, human and animal rights]

Card, Orson Scott. 1985. Ender’s Game. [War, exploitation, child soldiers, genocide]

Clarke, Arthur C. 1986. Songs of a Distant Earth. [Democracy as practiced through computer nets ... highly relevant to a post-Florida 2000 world.]

Delany, Samuel R. 1984. Stars in My Pocket... [Homosexuality, race, and urban decay]

Dick, Philip K. 1966. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? [Artificial intelligence, slavery, and cyberpunk]

Gaiman, Neil. 2002. American Gods. [Secular spiritualism, materialism]

Gibson, William. 1984. Neuromancer. [Cyberpunk, corporatism as governance, and morality]

Haldeman, Joe. 1974. Forever War. [War, racial exploitation, mass manipulation]

Haldeman, Joe. 1997. Forever Peace. [War, racial exploitation, mass manipulation]

Harrison, Harry. 1973. Make Room! Make Room! [Malthusian population growth]

Heinlein, Robert. 1965. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. [Utopianism and anarchy]

Heinlein, Robert. 1964. Farnham's Freehold. [Racism, slavery]

Huxley, Aldous. 1942(1932). Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited. [Class Struggle]

Le Guin, Ursula K. 1974. The Dispossessed. [Socialist utopianism]

Le Guin, Ursula K. 1969. The Left Hand of Darkness [Gender, sexual roles in society]

Orwell, George. 1948. 1984. [Totalitarianism, mass manipulation and control, censorship]

Piercy, Marge. 1976. Woman on the Edge of Time. [Feminist socialism]

Pohl, Frederik. 1976. Man Plus. [Genetic engineering, slavery, and war]

Stephenson, Neal. 1992. Snow Crash. [Mass manipulation and control, corporatist balkanization of government, cyberpunk]

Wells, H. G. 1895. The Time Machine. [Evolutionary distopianism]