All of the above, plus it reveals some interesting and often
disturbing insights into the
human psyche. For example: how
idol worship occurs and what happens when it goes wrong;
charity vs.
greed; why we
laugh...
The original text is about 220,000 words long. Thanks to the publisher's fear about producing what some may consider a
controversial work, Mr. Heinlein was pressured to edit this down to a little more than 160,000 words. It was this edited version that was first printed in 1961.
This book was banned for many years during the turbulent 1960's- a very noticeable omission in the preface to the 30th anniversary
uncut edition
(1991, Ace/Putnam).