Farnham's Freehold

infobox Book |
name = Farnham's Freehold
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First Edition cover of "Farnham's Freehold"
author = Robert A. Heinlein
illustrator =
cover_artist = Irv Docktor
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = G.P. Putnam (US)
release_date = 1964 (serial) 1965 (book)
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Farnham's Freehold" is a science fiction novel set in the near future by Robert A. Heinlein. A serialised version, edited by Frederik Pohl, appeared in "Worlds of If" magazine (July, August, October 1964). The complete version was published in novel form by G.P. Putnam later in 1964.

"Farnham's Freehold" is a post-apocalyptic tale, as the setup for the story is a direct hit by a nuclear weapon, which sends a fallout shelter containing a man, his wife, son, daughter, daughter's friend, and black domestic servant into the future. Heinlein drew on his own experience in building a fallout shelter under his own house in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1950.

The book is popular with survivalist groups as it combines the civil engineering and physics of fallout shelter survival with the social dynamics of "lifeboat rules," or autocratic authority under extreme conditions, a theme further explored in depth in "The Number of the Beast". To paraphrase Mr. Farnham, "How do you know who is the officer in the lifeboat? The one with the gun."

Plot summary

As the novel develops, the family finds itself marooned in a distant future where a decadent but technologically advanced black Muslim culture keeps either uneducated or castrated whites as slaves. Each of the characters adapts to the sudden role reversal in different and sometimes shocking ways. In the end, Farnham and Barbara, his daughter's guest, fail to adjust to the new situation. They volunteer, though they speculate that if they didn't volunteer they would have been forced to anyway, for a time-travel experiment to send them back in time. They return just prior to the original nuclear attack, and flee in Barbara's car. As they drive, they realize that while Barbara had driven a car with an automatic transmission, this car - the same car in every respect but one - has a manual transmission, and Farnham deduces that the time-travel experiment worked, but sent them into an alternative universe. They survive the war, then spend the rest of their lives trying to make sure the future they experienced does not come to pass.

Themes and criticism

Both "Farnham's Freehold" and "Sixth Column", another novel by Heinlein, deal extensively with issues of race, but whereas "Sixth Column" is perceived as racist by some readers, "Farnham's Freehold" depends for its impact on twisting the racial roles: in a future dominated by people of African descent, a culture technologically advanced enough to develop time travel also practices race-based slavery and institutionalized cannibalism.

Some have argued that the portrayal of the black ruling caste as cannibalistic, polygynous tyrants with a preference for Caucasian women utilizes most of the available racist stereotypes about Africans and African-Americans. Another interpretation posits that the cannibalism and sexual predation of the dark-skinned masters is allegorical, representing the way that black slaves were historically taken advantage of by their masters. This is similar to the "Durham's Pure Leaf Lard" theme in Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". Proponents of the allegory theory point out that in the second half of the story, Farnham describes a place in the West Indies where the blacks are cultured and sophisticated, and whites are feckless and shiftless, and that Heinlein then plays out a traditional slave narrative with Farnham as the narrator. From this point of view, the story is not about Africans and Caucasians, but rather about masters and slaves, regardless of race. It's also interesting to note that Farnham's second in command was not his son but their black domestic servant. This servant, Joseph, was also apparently going to school to become an accountant.

External links

*isfdb title|id=6130|title=Farnham's Freehold