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Dark Ages in popular culture
The Dark Ages concept is a periodization of European history based on the premise that the Fall of the Roman Empire led to a decline into an ignorant and superstitious interregnum. Prior to the 1970s, the concept of "the Dark Ages" was a conventional way of understanding the Medieval period, but is now rejected by most historians. The Dark Ages remain a part of popular culture based on the popularity of fictional works created before the 1970s.
Many science fiction writers have imagined alternate histories and future histories inspired by the Dark Ages concept.
- Isaac Asimov consciously modelled his fictional Galactic Empire on Edward Gibbons account of Rome's fall. His Foundation series depicts a group of "psychohistorians" manipulating events to shorten the subsequent dark ages from 30,000 years to 1,000.
- Poul Anderson envisioned a future history with stories set in a "Terran Empire" and the subsequent "Long Night."
- L. Sprague de Camp, in Lest Darkness Fall, depicts a time traveler who prevents the Dark Ages by introducing new technology and manipulating events.
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