Editing Starship Troopers (section)

==Setting==
Set approximately 700 years in the future,<ref name="Magill"/> the book depicts an Earth ruled by a [[world government]] run by military veterans.{{sfn|Booker|Thomas|2009|p=214}} The society is depicted as affluent, and futuristic technology shown as coexisting with educational methods from the 20th century.<ref name="Magill"/> The rights of a full citizen, to vote and hold public office, are not universally guaranteed, and rather must be earned through Federal Service.<ref name="JW"/> Those who do not perform this service (of which only military service has been described) retain the rights of free speech and assembly, but can neither vote nor hold public office. People of either sex above the age of 18 are permitted to enlist; only those who complete their service receive the right to vote.<ref name="Magill"/>{{sfn|Franklin|1980|p=111}} Important government jobs are reserved for federal service veterans.{{sfn|Booker|Thomas|2009|p=214}} This structure arose ''ad hoc'' after the collapse of the "20th century Western democracies", driven in part by an inability to control crime and [[juvenile delinquency]], particularly in North America, and a war between an alliance of the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia, against the "Chinese Hegemony".{{sfn|Heinlein|1987|pp=145–150}}

Two extraterrestrial civilizations are depicted, respectively, as the "Pseudo-Arachnids" (or "Bugs"), and the "Skinnies".  The "Bugs" are described as communal beings originating from the planet of Klendathu, and consist of multiple castes; workers, warriors, brains, and queens, similar to those of [[ant]]s and [[termite]]s on Earth. The warriors are the only ones who fight, and are unable to surrender in battle.{{sfn|Heinlein|1987|pp=170–180}} It also is implied that the Bugs are technologically advanced, possessing such technologies as spaceships.{{sfn|Heinlein|2014|loc=Kindle Loc 2128}} The "Skinnies" are depicted as less communal than the Arachnids, yet more so than humans.{{sfn|Franklin|1980|p=118}} The events of the novel take place during an interstellar war between the Terran Federation and the Arachnids.{{sfn|Panshin|1968|loc=chpt. 5, sec. 5}} At the opening of the story, Earth is not at war, yet such a declaration has come when Rico has completed his training.<ref name="Gifford"/> The "Skinnies" are initially allies of the Pseudo-Arachnids, but switch to alliance with humans, midway through the novel.{{sfn|Franklin|1980|p=118}} [[Faster-than-light]] travel exists in this future: spacecraft use the "Cherenkov drive", and can travel "Sol to Capella, forty-six [[lightyears]], in under six weeks".{{sfn|Heinlein|1987|pp=262–268}}

''Starship Troopers'' is narrated by the main protagonist Juan "Johnny" Rico, a member of the "Mobile Infantry". It is one of the few Heinlein novels which intersperses his typical linear narrative structure with a series of flashbacks.<ref name="Gifford"/>{{sfn|Panshin|1968|loc=chpt. 5, sec. 5}} These flashbacks are frequently to Rico's "History and Moral Philosophy" course in school, in which the teacher discusses the history of the structure of their society.<ref name="Gifford"/><ref name="JW"/> Rico is depicted as a man of [[Filipinos|Filipino ancestry]]. He is from a wealthy family, whose members had never served in the military.<ref name="Gifford"/><ref name="Magill"/>{{sfn|Franklin|1980|p=111}} Rico's ancestry is depicted as inconsequential, society having finally abandoned racial and gender-based prejudice.<ref name="Magill"/>