History

Note that Poul Anderson's A Stone In Heaven is a very late volume in a very long future history series and that its opening passage recounts ancient history on an extra-solar planet, newly introduced. Anderson's works are steeped in history, both fictional and real. His historical novels include The Golden Slave about barbarian invaders of Italy who were defeated by the Roman general, Marius. His Psychotechnic History opens with a story called "Marius" in which a future military leader is compared to the Roman general. Earlier in the Technic History, David Falkayn learns lessons from Jericho, Thermopylae, Hiroshima and Vladivostok. See Battles. Technic civilization follows the same cyclical rise and fall as earlier Terrestrial civilizations. Possibly that cycle has been broken in the concluding instalment, "Starfog."

Anderson's Time Patrol preserves a history that leads eventually to science and freedom. Everything is historical.