View source for The Past Through Tomorrow

{{Short description|Science fiction story collection by Robert A. Heinlein}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
[[Image:Pasttomorrow.jpg|thumb|First edition (publ. [[G. P. Putnam's Sons|Putnam]])<br>Cover art by Ben Feder]]
'''''The Past Through Tomorrow''''' is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer [[Robert A. Heinlein]], first published in 1967, all part of his ''[[Future History (novel)|Future History]]''.

Most of the stories are parts of a larger storyline about the future rapid collapse of sanity in the United States, followed by a [[theocracy|theocratic]] [[dictatorship]], a revolution, and the establishment of a free society that does not save the pseudo-immortal [[Lazarus Long]] and the [[Howard families]] from fleeing Earth for their lives. Most editions of the collection include a timeline showing the chronology of the stories (including stories never written, such as "The Stone Pillow", which was to occur during the period of the theocracy), times of birth and death of the significant characters, and commentary by Heinlein.

Contents:

* "[[Life-Line]]", 1939
* "[[Misfit (short story)|Misfit]]", 1939
* "[[The Roads Must Roll]]", 1940
* "[[Requiem (short story)|Requiem]]", 1940
* {{"'}}[[If This Goes On—]]{{'"}}, 1940
* "[[Coventry (short story)|Coventry]]", 1940
* "[[Blowups Happen]]", 1940
* "[[Methuselah's Children]]", 1941
* "[[Logic of Empire]]", 1941
* {{"'}}[[—We Also Walk Dogs]]{{'"}}, 1941
* "[[Space Jockey (short story)|Space Jockey]]", 1947
* "'[[It's Great to Be Back!]]'", 1947
* "[[The Green Hills of Earth]]", 1947
* "[[Ordeal in Space]]", 1948
* "[[The Long Watch]]", 1948
* "[[Gentlemen, Be Seated!]]", 1948
* "[[The Black Pits of Luna]]", 1948
* "[[Delilah and the Space Rigger]]", 1949
* "[[The Man Who Sold the Moon]]", 1950
* "[[The Menace from Earth]]", 1957
* "[[Searchlight (short story)|Searchlight]]", 1962

==Reception==
While regretting that several Future History stories Heinlein planned were never written, [[Algis Budrys]] praised the collection as "some of the finest writing this field has ever known". He described the book as "a magnificent compendium, coincidentally a rewarding and perhaps accurate cross-section of a writer's career", and required for any science fiction library.<ref name="budrys196710">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Budrys
 |first=Algis
 |author=
 |last2=
 |first2=
 |date=October 1967
 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf
 |department=
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v26n01_1967-10_modified#page/n175/mode/2up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=188–194
 |type=
}}</ref> In February 1968 he named the book the "best publishing idea of the year".<ref name="budrys196802">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Budrys
 |first=Algis
 |author=
 |last2=
 |first2=
 |date=February 1968
 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf
 |department=
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v26n03_1968-02_modified#page/n99/mode/2up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=157–162
 |type=
}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{ISFDB title|id=32045}}
* {{OL work|id=59722W|cname=''The Past Through Tomorrow''}}

{{Future History}}
{{Heinlein (books)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Past Through Tomorrow, The}}
[[Category:1967 short story collections]]
[[Category:Short story collections by Robert A. Heinlein]]


{{1960s-sf-story-collection-stub}}