Summary
Summary of Armageddon—2419 A.D.
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A soldier steps beyond his century
Anthony Rogers is a young American whose ordinary work will carry him into an America he cannot recognize. Nowlan places a trained soldier inside a future shaped by conquest, new weapons and the struggle to fight back. The adventure grows from a question about what one practical person can offer people who have lost their way.
Behind the rocket guns and floating belts lie fears of war and foreign power. Rogers brings a soldier's habits into that imagined future.
Key idea 2
A strange gas suspends his life
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Key idea 3
Forests cover the world he remembers
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Key idea 4
The conquerors control cities and sky
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Key idea 5
Wilma helps Rogers find his place
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Key idea 6
Old skills retain their value
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Key idea 7
A soldier's account makes invention concrete
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Key idea 8
Invention and courage shape this future
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love early science fiction, adventure with weapons and tactics, or the roots of space heroes in popular culture.
What this book is
Armageddon 2419 A.D. is a science fiction novella by Philip Francis Nowlan. It first appeared in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories in 1928. In it a young American man named Anthony Rogers falls asleep in a mine and wakes almost five centuries later, in a country he no longer knows. The tale gave the world the first adventures of the hero who would soon be known as Buck Rogers, in newspaper strips, radio shows and films.
Nowlan wrote in the years after the First World War, when many readers feared new wars and new weapons. He pictured a future America beaten down by foreign conquerors and then slowly fighting back. You get a soldier's eye view of that fight, with rocket guns, belts that make a man float and airships that sweep the sky. You also get a story about what one trained, stubborn person can teach a people who have lost their way. Let us begin where Rogers does, underground, with a job to do and no idea what is about to happen to him.
In this summary
- 1A mine, a gas, and a long sleepFree
- 2Rogers wakes in a changed America
- 3The Han hold the sky and the cities
- 4Wilma Deering and the forest fighters
- 5What the story is really about
- 6How the tale is told and why it lasted
Key point 1 of 6
A mine, a gas, and a long sleep
The story opens in the late 1920s with Anthony Rogers telling his own tale. He is a former officer of the First World War, and he now works as a surveyor for a company that studies the air and rock in old mines. His task is to look into strange reports from some abandoned workings in Pennsylvania. Nowlan sets the scene in a plain, businesslike voice, as if Rogers were writing a report.
Down in the mine, Rogers is caught by a cave-in. He is cut off from the world, and he notices a gas in the air that glows faintly. The gas is radioactive, a word that was fairly new to the public when the story appeared. Rogers does not panic as badly as you might expect. He tries to work out what is happening to him, much as a trained soldier would study a battlefield.
The gas does something he has no way to predict. It slows his body so thoroughly that he does not die and does not age. He drifts into a kind of suspended life, a sleep that no ordinary clock could measure. Nowlan gives only a short, loose explanation, because the point is not the science but the result.
This opening does a lot with little space. It puts a sensible, practical man into a situation that no practical training could cover. It also sets up the question that drives everything after it. What does a man of 1927 have to offer a world that has moved on for hundreds of years? The answer comes when he opens his eyes again.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What allows Rogers to survive his long sleep?
Right. “It slows his body so thoroughly that he does not die and does not age.”Not quite. “It slows his body so thoroughly that he does not die and does not age.”
What role does Wilma Deering play when Rogers enters the new world?
Right. “Through her he learns the language, the customs and the dangers of the age.”Not quite. “Through her he learns the language, the customs and the dangers of the age.”
Why do Rogers's old skills still matter?
Right. “The story suggests that discipline, courage and clear thinking carry over from one age to the next.”Not quite. “The story suggests that discipline, courage and clear thinking carry over from one age to the next.”
Questions about Armageddon—2419 A.D.
What is Armageddon 2419 A.D. about?
It tells of Anthony Rogers, a man of 1927 who is put into a long sleep by a gas in a mine. He wakes in 2419 to find America overrun by foreign conquerors and joins the fight against them.
Is Armageddon 2419 A.D. the start of Buck Rogers?
Yes. Nowlan published it in Amazing Stories in 1928, and it introduced Anthony Rogers. The character was soon turned into Buck Rogers in a newspaper comic strip, then in radio, film and television.
Who are the Han in Armageddon 2419 A.D.?
The Han are Mongol conquerors who rule the future United States from sealed cities and airships. They reflect fears of a foreign threat that were common in popular fiction of the 1920s.
What is inertron in the story?
Inertron is a fictional material that is lighter than air. It is used in belts that let wearers leap far and fall safely, and it is one of the best known inventions in the tale.
Is Armageddon 2419 A.D. hard to read today?
No, it is short and fast moving.
