Gilead's Foundation

Published in 1985, The Handmaid's Tale imagines the Republic of Gilead, a theocratic regime that has replaced the United States government. Environmental disaster has caused mass infertility, and fertile women called Handmaids are forced into ritualized sexual servitude to bear children for the ruling class.

Margaret Atwood insisted she included nothing that had not already happened somewhere in human history. Forced reproduction, religious dictatorship, the stripping of women's legal rights, the burning of books — every element has a documented real-world precedent.