The sub-genre of science fiction called post-apocalyptic, which became popular in the later 20th century, is widely understood by literary critics to mirror society’s existential dread over its possible demise. Viewed from this perspective, Earth Abides reflects, albeit tangentially, Cold War paranoia about a potential nuclear apocalypse, fears about modern technology, and the rising tide of American nationalism that accompanied the Cold War.

Classic post-apocalyptic novels like On the Beach (1957) and A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959) as well as films like Planet of the Apes (1968), Logan’s Run (1976), and The Road Warrior (1981) all portray a world devastated by a nuclear war and the subsequent nuclear fallout. Earth Abides, however, chooses a different path. A plague, not a nuclear blast, eradicates humanity, and in this respect, Stewart’s narrative stands apart from its peers. Earth Abides uses a plague rather than war as its apocalyptic disaster at a time when the nuclear arms race preoccupied the world. Other science fiction works that feature plagues are H. G. Wells’s influential War of the Worlds (1897), Oryx and Crake (2003), and Station Eleven (2014).

Post-apocalyptic novels and films have imagined a variety of scenarios in the aftermath of the cataclysm: Humans living under sheltered domes in a youth-obsessed culture (Logan’s Run, 1976); survivors of nuclear war waiting for the inevitable nuclear fallout to engulf them (On the Beach, 1957); and the ever-popular zombie apocalypse (World War Z, 2006).