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Future History is a term describing several short stories and novels written by Robert A. Heinlein, set against a fairly consistent background and covering the period beginning roughly in the middle of the twentieth century, extending through the twenty-first, twenty-second, and ending around the early twenty-third century.

Background

As Heinlein began to write science fiction in 1939, he kept a wall chart on which he included details about the fictional background and timeline of many of his stories. Astounding Science Fiction editor John W. Campbell became aware of the chart and published it in the March 1941 issue of the magazine. It was Campbell who came up with the term Future History to describe Heinlein's concept.

Several stories originally noted on the chart were never written. A few stories originally included on the chart (--And He Built a Crooked House, for example) were later removed, and other stories added. Heinlein scholars differ on which stories should and should not be included.

The Past Through Tomorrow, published in 1967, contains all the Future History stories except Universe and Common Sense. These two had recently been published together under the title Orphans of the Sky. The final version of the chart was published in this collection, though at least two novels written after 1967 are part of the Future History.

List of Future History works

Where dates are given in the stories, they have been noted, where approximate dates can be inferred, they have been noted, but with a "?".

1951-2000:

• Life-Line (1939 in the original magazine version, 1951 in later reprintings)
• Let There Be Light (takes place not long after "Life-Line")
• The Roads Must Roll (1980s?--magazine version references a past "Strike of '66" which many 30-40-year-old characters took part in; later versions change it to the "Strike of '76")
• Blowups Happen
• The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950s through early twenty-first century)
• Delilah and the Space-Rigger (1980s? or 1990s?; first space station being built)
• Space Jockey (1990s?; several space stations in service, Luna City being built)
• The Long Watch (year stated to be 1999 in story; many scholars feel this story presents a totally different Earth and Moon background than the others and should not have been included; Luna City not mentioned)

Early Twenty-first century:

• Gentlemen, Be Seated (Luna City being built)
• Requiem (Luna City is finished by the time this story takes place)
• The Black Pits of Luna
• "It's Great to Be Back!"
• "—We Also Walk Dogs"
• Searchlight
• Ordeal in Space
• The Green Hills of Earth
• Logic of Empire
• The Menace from Earth
• "If This Goes On—"
• Coventry
• Misfit

Twenty-second and twenty-third centuries:

• Methuselah's Children (2136-2210)

Post Twenty-third century:

• Universe (~3500; prologue was set in 2119)
• Common Sense (~3500)
• Time Enough for Love (4272 and earlier time periods as far back as 1916)
• To Sail Beyond the Sunset (set between 1882 and 1982 and post-4272)

Other works tangentially connected to Future History

• Rhysling, the protagonist of The Green Hills of Earth, is mentioned in the 1950 novel Farmer in the Sky.

• Heinlein's later novels include a "Multiverse" approach to his earlier works, wherein multiple universes overlap in a design known as "World as Myth." The following novels are interconnected to the Future History in different fictional dimensions:

• The Rolling Stones (1952)
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)
• The Number of the Beast (1980)
• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)