This contrasts with the authors of much other social criticism who are largely academic or mainstream novelists who tend to dismiss any genre classification.
[2] As a genre, it can be seen[vague] as growing out of the 1930s and 1940s when the science-fiction pulp magazines were reaching their peak at the same time as fascism and communism.
Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged is a strong (perhaps the strongest) influence with an anti-socialist attitude and an individualist ethic that echoes throughout the genre.
Since 1982, the award has been given out by the Libertarian Futurist Society "to provide encouragement to science fiction writers whose books examine the meaning of freedom".
Some winners of the award identify as libertarians (L. Neil Smith, Victor Koman, and Brad Linaweaver), while others do not (Terry Pratchett and Charles Stross).