The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

In the year 2076, the inhabitants of a prison colony on the moon rebel and demand their freedom, sparking a war for independence against all of Earth. This is the story of Robert Heinlein's classic novel, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. My message to you today is simple: don't miss this book. Not only is it a gripping story, it is also an intriguing examination of government, governance, and politics ... The book explores anarchism deeply throughout ... The book is sprinkled delightfully with allusions to history, political philosophy, and even the Bible ...

Victor Koman, author of Kings of the High Frontier believes ... that NASA's unwritten mission is to keep ordinary private individuals out of space. The question—beyond the state's simple and insane desire to control everything and everyone—was always why. But it occurred to me when I first prepared this talk that we've always known why—those of us who read Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, that is. Somebody at NASA (or more likely the CIA or NSA) read it, too, and doesn't want ordinary private individuals dropping rocks on them the way Mike and Mannie did during the Lunar Revolution.

In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), Heinlein offers perhaps his most well-developed libertarian vision. The story is narrated by computer expert Manuel O'Kelly Davis. The moon, referred to as Luna, is a colony of the Earth which uses it as a place to keep convicts and political dissidents ... They don't like laws, but they respect customs. They cherish individual initiative and enterprise. They tolerate other people's lifestyle choices and mind their own business ... The conspirators recruit Mycroft Holmes, or Mike, the computer who runs Luna to help the revolution.

[W]hen the mass-market paperback edition of Heinlein's 1966 novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was published in 1968, [Konkin] picked up a copy as quickly as he could manage it and sat down to read. This new Heinlein tale, in which colonists on the moon—Luna—stage a libertarian revolution against the tyranny of politicians on Earth, captured Sam's imagination in a way none of Heinlein's other books ever had. He was particularly fascinated by the views of the self-described "rational anarchist," Professor Bernardo de la Paz, the intellectual leader of the rebels on Luna.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, ... the winner of the Hugo award as the best science fiction novel of 1966, is the story of a libertarian revolution on the moon—a revolution designed to free Luna from ... Earth. One of the leaders of the revolution is a "distinguished man with wavy white hair, dimples in cheeks, and [a] voice that smiled," Professor Bernardo de la Paz, who speaks of "the most basic human right, the right to bargain in a free marketplace." ... According to [him], this is "the key question ... [a] radical question that strikes to the root of the whole dilemma of government."