Swastika Night

Published in 1937, this novel projects a brutal, totally male-controlled fascist world. The women are breeders, and the men have abolished all history, education, and art. The plot centers on a British "misfit" who dares to ask, "How could this have happened?"

Burdekin's novel explores the connection between gender and polititcal power and anticipates modern feminist science fiction. Readers will be reminded of 1984 and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland and note the sharp contrast between the woman-centered world of her land and the womanless one of Swastika Night.