Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was written in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. What do you know about the United Kingdom during this historical period? What cultural, political, or economic trends do you associate with this time and place?

Teaching Suggestion: The United Kingdom in the 1970s was marked by rising cynicism. The previous decade, the “Swinging 60s,” was a period in which London saw a cultural renaissance and rise in political consciousness. However, mounting tensions between America and the Soviet Union during the Vietnam War contributed to an uncertain political and economic climate throughout the world. The period also saw rapid developments in technology as well as a rise in consumer capitalism and government bureaucracy. To strengthen students’ understanding of these developments, consider discussing or drawing their attention to mass communications and popular media of the time period.  

• In this lecture, Professor Sir Vernon Bogdanor discusses the characteristics of Post-War Britain (instructor facing, not student facing).
• This article discusses the role of satire in the British film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, released a few years before Adams published The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.