He engaged
a room for the week, on credit.

Chapter Twenty-Six

In the morning, Barrent asked directions to the nearest branch of the
public library. He decided that he needed as much background out of
books as he could get. With a knowledge of the history and development
of Earth's civilization, he would have a better idea of what to expect
and what to watch out for.

His Opinioner's clothing allowed him access to the closed shelves where
the history books were kept. But the books themselves were
disappointing. Most of them were Earth's ancient history, from earliest
beginnings to the dawn of atomic power. Barrent skimmed through them. As
he read, some memories of prior reading returned to him. He was able to
jump quickly from Periclean Greece to Imperial Rome, to Charlemagne and
the Dark Ages, from the Norman Conquest to the Thirty Years' War, and
then to a rapid survey of the Napoleonic Era. He read with more care
about the World Wars. The book ended with the explosion of the first
atom bombs. The other books on the shelf were simply amplifications of
various stages of history he had found in the first book.

After a great deal of searching, Barrent found a small work entitled,
"The Postwar Dilemma, Volume 1," by Arthur Whittler. It began where the
other histories had left off; with the atomic bombs exploding over
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Barrent sat down and began to read carefully.

He learned about the Cold War of the 1950's, when several nations were
in possession of atomic and hydrogen weapons. Already, the author
stated, the seeds of a massive and stultifying conformity were present
in the nations of the world. In America, there was the frenzied
resistance to communism. In Russia and China, there was the frenzied
resistance to capitalism. One by one, all the nations of the world were
drawn into one camp or the other. For purposes of internal security, all
countries relied upon the newest propaganda and indoctrination
techniques. All countries felt they needed, for survival's sake, a rigid
adherence to state-approved doctrines.

The pressure upon the individual to conform became both stronger and
subtler.

The dangers of war passed. The many societies of Earth began to merge
into a single superstate. But the pressure to conform, instead of
lessening, grew more intense. The need was dictated by the continued
explosive increase in population, and the many problems of unification
across national and