August 5, 2020 - Somewhere between World War II and the first man on the moon Heinlein prophetically placed the Crazy Years – “a gradual deterioration of mores, orientation and social institutions, terminating in mass psychoses in the sixth decade”.

August 27, 2017 - The Crazy Years, in Heinlein’s timeline, were when rapid changes in technology, together with the disruption those changes caused in mores and economics, caused society to, well, go crazy.

Considerable technical advance during this period, accompanied by a gradual deterioration of mores, orientation, and social institutions, terminating in mass psychoses in the sixth decade, and the interregnum.Sounds pretty accurate though the Crazy Years are lasting longer than Heinlein anticipated.

July 21, 2020 - He wasn't trying so much to be ... The "Crazy Years" was a time he predicted that would occur after the war and before the first moon landing, when social mores and society in general would break down....

June 19, 2015 - I haven’t read heinlein in years. Anyway, he projected the future of the USA in a timeline-some point in the future was the so-called “Crazy years”. What went on during that time? When did it end?

August 20, 2021 - I’m sure I am not the first to observe this, but it seems Robert A. Heinlein was on to something when he conceived of “The Crazy Years” as a condition American society found itself in as it absorbed technological, demographic, and economic changes into the whole of our civilization.

Answer (1 of 11): The “Crazy Years”, was set somewhere between the end of the War (WW2) and the first moon landing, through 2100. An era spanning a century and a half and known for technological and scientific advancement. However, it was somewhat known for the begining of a period of America ...

August 24, 2017 - The Crazy Years, in Heinlein’s timeline, were when rapid changes in technology, together with the disruption those changes caused in mores and economics, caused society to, well, go crazy. They ran from the last couple of decades of the 20th Century into the first couple of decades of the 21st.

December 24, 2019 - However, back in the early 1940s, Heinlein imagined the United States going through what he called the “Crazy Years” and later on experiencing religious fanaticism that leads to a theocracy.

March 3, 2016 - The state of the current political campaign in the USA and the referendum on the common market about to be held in the UK along with the mess the middle east had become over the last few decades has caused me to pick up the Past Through Tomorrow for this weeks rereading. it contains the short stories and novelas from the series but the whole outline can be seen at this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_History_(Heinlein) given when these were written mostly in the 40s and 50s long before any thing like the internet existed some of his themes have a disturbing reality in the present day to them.

August 21, 2017 - The Crazy Years, in Heinlein’s timeline, were when rapid changes in technology, together with the disruption those changes caused in mores and economics, caused society to, well, go crazy.

January 12, 2010 - The gap between Verne’s dream and Rickover’s reality was eight decades, about the time separating Heinlein’s writing of “Menace from Earth” and its projected date. Looking back from the year 2010, however the dates seem remarkably optimistic and compressed. We have not even mounted a manned expedition to Mars as yet, and no return manned trips to the Moon are on the drawing boards. One prediction that was remarkably prescient, however, was the advent of “The Crazy Years” described as “Considerable technical advance during this period, accompanied by a gradual deterioration of mores, orientation, and social institutions, terminating in mass psychoses in the sixth decade, and the interregnum.”

March 25, 2017 - Seriously, read his last paragraph (above) again. Then recall that Heinlein portrayed Nehemiah Scudder taking the White House against the will of a majority, in 2012. (He also spoke of America sinking into “The Crazy Years.”)

What a great question. I grew up reading Heinlein and any libertarian ideas I have, he helped germinate. The answer to your question whether he was right in predicting “The Crazy Years” is a qualified maybe. There are some trends today that I find very scary and if they cont...

Official Robert A. Heinlein™

June 14, 2025 - It’s Heinlein’s madness dressed in the colors of the flag. Worse, it's working. The more irrational it gets, the more people double down. That's the core of the Crazy Years: when logic loses to identity, and identity is whatever the loudest demagogue says it is that day.

October 11, 2004 - A collection of witty, irreverent essays on subjects running the gamut from the space program to airport bans on smoking are included in this anthology. Written by Spider Robinson, The Crazy Years takes its name from Robert A. Heinlein's designation ...

A collection of witty, irreverent essays on subjects running the gamut from the space program to airport bans on smoking are included in this anthology. Written by Spider Robinson, The Crazy Years takes its name from Robert A. Heinlein's designation of the last years of the 20th century and ...