Dreams and Nightmares: Science and Technology in Myth and Fiction

This book studies the treatment of science and technology from ancient myths to current works, demonstrating the importance of science to human civilization as evidenced in literature. Works studied include the Bible, Greek mythology, tales from the Middle Ages (including those about the Golem and Dr. Faustus), Gulliver’s Travels, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and works by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, and Aldous Huxley, among others.

Mordecai Roshwald is professor emeritus of social science and humanities at the University of Minnesota. He has held visiting appointments at universities in Israel, United Kingdom, Canada and Taiwan and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is also the author of the noted dystopian science fiction novel Level 7 (1959).