Available to order on Amazon, from your local bookstore, or directly from the publisher McFarland, please consider my second published work, Star Trek, History and Us: Reflections of the Present and Past Throughout the Franchise.
Here’s the official blurb:
Since 1966, the Star Trek television franchise has used outer space and the thrilling adventures of the crews of the U.S.S. Enterprise to reflect our own world and culture. Kirk and Spock face civil rights issues and Vietnam war allegories while Picard, Data, and the next generation seek an ordered, post-Cold War stability in the Reagan era.
The crews of Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise must come to terms with our real life of war, manifest destiny in the 21st century, and the shadow of 9/11. Now, as the modern era of the franchise attempts to portray a utopia amidst a world spinning out of control, Star Trek remains about more than just the future. It is about our present. It is about us.
This book charts the history of Gene Roddenberry’s creation across five decades alongside the cultural development of the United States and asks: are we heading for the utopian Federation future, or is it slipping ever further away from reality?
And for the unofficial blurb…
I had the idea for this book even before I wrote Myth-Building in Modern Media thanks to the Trek FM podcast I co-devised with author Duncan Barrett in 2017. It is now Duncan’s baby but I appear regularly and often help produce the show and it remains a real point of pride for me as a creative. The discussions we have enjoyed on that show formed the basis for a book that indulges my passion for Star Trek, my love of cultural history, and my fascination with American politics, and brews them into one big show. I wrote this book primarily during the first Covid-19 lockdown in the spring & summer of 2020, afforded the luxury to be working from home, and I sometimes wonder if I ever would have finished it were it not for the pandemic. Nevertheless, it is a work I am very proud of, and truly loved the process of researching, reading and writing.
You can order the book handily from the following places and all good book stores:
Amazon UK (paperback)
It is an academic text, and as such is beyond the traditional price range of more populist books, so if funds don’t stretch, it’s worth considering asking your local library to purchase and stock it, and then you can borrow for free while also supporting your local library. It’s a win win!
If you do consider it, my deepest thanks.
A. J. Black - Writer/Podcaster 