‘The End of Eternity’ by Isaac Asimov and the Manifest Destiny of America
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) was one of the central writers of the formative period of science fiction and among the very first to highlight the political and societal importance of the genre. The key works in Asimov’s oeuvre were the Robot and Foundation series published in the Astounding Science-Fiction magazine in the 1940’s and the 1950’s. In these Asimov dealt with themes of history, frontier expansion and guardianship. However these stories were all based in space. But with the publication of The End of Eternity in 1955 he placed his context not in space but in time. (It is interesting that the cover artwork to the 1975 Panther edition features a spaceship. How wrong can you get?) It is a stand-alone book and is considered by many to be his single best SF novel.
Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a member of the elite of the future. One of the few who live in Eternity, a location outside of place and time, Harlan’s job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. These Changes are small, exactingly calculated shifts in the course of history made for the benefit of humankind. Though each Change has been made for the greater good, there are always costs. In particular, space flight never happens because of the changes they make.
