Isaac Asimov divided the history of modern science fiction, i.e., works written after 1926, into four types of stories:

• 1926-38--adventure dominant
• 1938-50--science dominant
• 1950-65--sociology dominant
• 1966-present--style dominant

When the first issue of Astounding was published in January 1930, science fiction began to move in the direction of more analytical stories with a stronger base in science and technology.

The Golden Age itself dates roughly from the summer of 1939 with the publication of the July issue of Astounding to the end of 1950 when other magazines such as Galaxy and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction began to appear.

Author and editor John W. Campbell, Jr. (1910-1971), educated as an engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke University, became editor of Astounding in 1938 when he was 27 years old. It is here that he essentially inaugurated and shaped the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Campbell adhered to his own perception of a hierarchy of knowledge:

1. physics, chemistry, astronomy--sciences in which laws are mathematically verifiable;
2. biological sciences--disciplines which are in part descriptive or impure because they deal with living creatures;
3. social sciences such as anthropology, economics, political science, and experimental psychology; and finally
4. humanities such as theology, philosophy and clinical psychology.

Campbell was one of the field's true intellectuals.

Under Campbell Astounding not only had lots of aliens; it also had faith that space travel was possible.

Campbell believed that the universe was not essentially hostile to mankind and that human action and decisions counted in the universe.

These beliefs were reflected in the fiction he chose to publish.

He maintained a taboo against adult sexuality in his publications. He could also be xenophobic, elitist, racist, and psychologically naive.

In 1944 Campbell published "Deadline" by Cleve Cartmill, dealing with the explosion of an atomic bomb. When investigated by the FBI, Campbell argued that all the factual information in the story was available in pre-war unclassified sources and that since Astounding had been publishing atomic war stories all along, the Germans would get suspicious if he suddenly stopped.

Werner von Braun, mastermind of the German rocket program, arranged to continue to receive Astounding throughout the war.

Campbell encouraged and trained some of science fiction's strongest genre writers.

He maintained a stable of writers with whom he worked and to whom he pitched story ideas and made suggestions for long-term projects. Many of these writers are considered giants in the field of science fiction literature. They include:

• Isaac Asimov
• L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• Robert A. Heinlein
• L. Ron Hubbard
• Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore
• Murray Leinster
• Theodore Sturgeon
• A. E. van Vogt