# Was there any "post-apocalyspe" sci-fi before WWII? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 22, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559 "2004-06-22T02:30:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/1 "2004-06-22T02:30:05Z")
If there was, what was the agent of the apocalypse? If there wasn’t, what were the earliest books/films in this genre? Thanks you sci-fi smarties! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/2 "2004-06-22T02:40:24Z")
The best well known is the classic movie _The Shape of Things to Come_. It depicted another Great War that dragged on for decades, included the mass use on cities of chemical and biological weapons, and only ended when the world had decayed to a pre-industrial level. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/3 "2004-06-22T02:43:10Z")
There was some, not to the extent of post WWII obviously. I remember reading a Jack London story set after a plague wiped out most of humanity (sorry, I don’t have the title at hand right now, IIRC it was called “the Red (something or other)”. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/4 "2004-06-22T02:54:21Z")
Does the Bible (specifically the Great Flood and Revelations) count? (Apologies to all religious people and sci-fi devotees – I’m neither). ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/5 "2004-06-22T03:03:30Z")
You might want to have a look at Eugene Zamiatin’s _We_. It’s a novel that (I believe) was published the 1920s. Makes Orwell’s _1984_ seem cheerful by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/6 "2004-06-22T03:19:47Z")
> [@](#): > > The farther I penetrated into London, the profounder grew the stillness. But it was not so much the stillness of death — it was the stillness of suspense, of expectation. At any time the destruction that had already singed the northwestern borders of the metropolis, and had annihilated Ealing and Kilburn, might strike among these houses and leave them smoking ruins. It was a city condemned and derelict… > > The dusky houses about me stood faint and tall and dim; the trees towards the park were growing black. All about me the red weed clambered among the ruins, writhing to get above me in the dimness. Night, the mother of fear and mystery, was coming upon me. But while that voice sounded the solitude, the desolation, had been endurable; by virtue of it London had still seemed alive, and the sense of life about me had upheld me. Then suddenly a change, the passing of something — I knew not what — and then a stillness that could be felt. Nothing but this gaunt quiet. H.G. Wells, _The War of the Worlds_ (1898). Jack London’s [The Scarlet Plague](http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/Scarlet/) (1912) is set in the year 2073, after a plague has left its survivors a nomadic existence. [A summary](http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/london298-des-.html). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/7 "2004-06-22T03:24:42Z")
In this [earlier thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=257814), the poster mentions some other early post-apocalyptic films toward the end. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/8 "2004-06-22T03:30:39Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > You might want to have a look at Eugene Zamiatin’s _We_. It’s a novel that (I believe) was published the 1920s. Makes Orwell’s _1984_ seem cheerful by comparison. But it describes a dystopia, not an apocalypse. The society described is stable and (in purely material terms) prosperous. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/9 "2004-06-22T03:30:50Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > H.G. Wells, _The War of the Worlds_ (1898) And a not-insignificant portion of his Time Machine. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/10 "2004-06-22T03:56:28Z")
Another famous example is the short story “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet, written in 1937. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/11 "2004-06-22T04:10:03Z")
Hell, Wells pretty much makes the prediction that flying machines will be used for war before the turn of the century! (that is IIRC) ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/12 "2004-06-22T06:07:29Z")
Does Olaf Stapleton’s **Last and First men** count? Civilization ends quite a few times over the course of the book, usually leaving few survivors who have to rebuild everything from scratch. The book ends with the last men awaiting the end of the world from the death of the Sun, created by some kind of “Infection” that kills starts. Apparently Mary Shelly wrote a book called **The last man** which concerned a plague, but I never finished it. Somebody’s already mentioned Wells and **The Time Machine**. HP Lovecraft wrote a story or two dealing with a post-apotolypic world, notably a collaboration called **Till A’ the Seas** , details a far future earth where the seas have boiled away, and his story **Nyarlathotep** Donald Wanderi did a lot of this stuff. [ul] [li]\*\*The Red Brain \*\*(A race of brains tries to prevent the end of the universe) [/li][li]\*\*Race through time \*\* and to a much greater extent, **Farewell to Earth** (Taking place around the year 1,000,000 and the world after man). [/li][li]\*\*The Whisperers \*\* is almost the end of the World. I’m not sure if that counts. [/li][li] **Requim for Mankind** (One of the last living humans talks about the soon to be end of mankind)[/li][li] **Earth Minus** [/li][li] **Finality Unlimited** [/li][li] **Infinity Zero** (A black hole threatens to comsume earth)[/li][li] **Black Fog** (Detailing the effects when the earth passes through a black fog in space that effectivly makes all life on earth infertile)[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/13 "2004-06-22T12:22:30Z")
I like to use [http://www.scifan.com/](http://www.scifan.com/) to look for books with a specific theme. The “after the apocalypse” section, beginning at [this page](http://www.scifan.com/themes/themes.asp?TH_themeid=9&Items=), shows some items from before WWII, but not anywhere near the number from after WWII - there are 49 pages of items in this theme, and the first page takes the listings past WWII. Not all books have summaries available, so it’s hard to tell what’s most likely to be the reason for the apocalypse. Mainly, I just like that site. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/14 "2004-06-22T14:44:40Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > But it describes a dystopia, not an apocalypse. The society described is stable and (in purely material terms) prosperous. It’s been a while since I read it, but it always struck me as a post-apocalyptic society. I can’t remember the cause of the society being the way it is (does Zamiatin even say?), but I do know it’s one place I wouldn’t want to live, no matter how stable and prosperous. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/15 "2004-06-22T14:50:21Z")
E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909) is sort of apocalyptic. He forsees humanity so dependent on technology that, when it quits working, humanity stops working also. Not quite in the same vein as others, but a good read… ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/16 "2004-06-22T15:33:56Z")
How about Mary Shelley’s _The Last Man_, from 1826? It involves the death of just about the entire human race due to a plague. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-any-post-apocalyspe-sci-fi-before-wwii/251559/17 "2004-06-22T22:14:51Z")
While it’s the second item on the list **Lsura** linked to, it’s worth specifically mentioning Richard Jeffries’ [_After London_](http://tanaya.net/Books/alondon/) from 1885. He doesn’t say what the agent is, but civilisation is evidently collapsing into barbarism in the background of the opening. (Jeffries’ more obscure sci-fi connection is that he knew Arthur C. Clarke’s grandfather (?) and wrote a book about him.)