As part of the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Appreciation series celebrating the Prometheus Awards’ four-decade history by publishing review-essays of past award-winners that make clear why each deserves recognition as a pro-freedom work, here’s an appreciation for Robert Heinlein’s story “Coventry,” the 2017 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction.
By Michael Grossberg and Jesse Markowitz
What is the ideal society? Is utopia even possible?
How close has the United States come to an ideal society, even with the inevitable flaws that beset every country and culture?
These are among the perennial questions explored and dramatized in Robert Heinlein’s classic story Coventry.
Related questions also emerge: How do you build a utopia and who do you build it for? Is it possible, fair and just to build a utopian alternative for some, but not for others?