This is backstory. I'm Ed Ayers.

Americans, it's often said, are a forward-looking people.

A people more focused on the good things to come

than on the challenges of the past.

Then again, the scenarios they've looked forward to

haven't always been very rosy.

Earth is going to dry out, just like Mars.

And then it's going to dry out even more,

just like the moon, and it's going to be a dead rock

rolling through space.

Today on the show, how Americans in the past

have imagined the future.

From the optimistic dreams of early immigrants,

to the dystopian fantasies set in the nation's biggest metropolis.

There are floods and earthquakes and bombs and riots.

All of these play a different role.

We'll consider what future thinkers have gotten right

and what they failed to see coming.

There are no people of color in the Jetsons.

Jane, the mother, doesn't work outside of the home.

A history of the future in America coming up on backstory.

Don't go away.

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