Bug Wars

I'm going to be working with a Heinlein science fiction novel and using the New Historicist method of criticism to look at my text. Heinlein writes very thematically charged novels set in the future, however, both of the texts that I'm trying to decide between were written during times of upheaval and volatility in U.S. popular and political culture. New Historicism attempts to understand literature by looking at the historical and cultural context in which it was written, as well as attempting to understand history by reading period literature. I think this is going to be the most interesting angle to take when dealing with my novels. I'm leaning towards Starship Troopers at the moment. The novel revolves around several themes that have to do with citizenship, voting rights, and duty as an individual as well as a member of a greater society. Troopers was written in the late 1950s, as the world was dealing with the effects of WWII and Korea, as well as the burgeoning Cold War. Using New Historicism to get a look at the context in which Troopers was written will provide a lot of insight into the themes that Heinlein looks at in his novel.