I Highly recommend the book The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein to understand him in context of his time. Here's a pretty good review[0]. Quoting fro

I Highly recommend the book The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein to understand him in context of his time. Here's a pretty good review[0]. Quoting from the review: When it comes to more difficult issues, Mendlesohn neatly avoids the simplifications that frequently appear on both sides: “With Heinlein it’s always a case of being a little bit more complicated than it initially seems.” Mendlesohn compares his vocal opposition to bigotry with the limitations of his nonwhite characters – whose racial identities are often reduced to “Easter eggs” in the text – and his lack of sensitivity toward institutional oppression: “Heinlein understands and opposes enslavement and colour prejudice, but he does not really see that racism has a wider infrastructure. He does not understand what we now frame as systemic racism.” Elsewhere, Mendlesohn points out that Heinlein’s most famous aphorism on guns – “An armed society is a polite society” – falls apart in context, while their discussion of Heinlein’s “intensely personal” fascination with gender may inspire many readers to see his portrayal of women in a new light. Writing of his “yearning to get a real feeling for what women think, feel and want,” Mendlesohn concludes: “Heinlein made a conscious effort to think about what women were like, and how they thought about themselves. He tried to create for them a voice that was embodied and aware of being female in a male world. In these stories he also tried to make an argument about the possibilities for shifting that sense of self.” This willingness to view a writer through the lens of the critic’s own time is just what we ought to expect from a serious evaluation of a figure in the main line of American literature, which is precisely how Heinlein is regarded by his fans. The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein pays him the compliment of holding him to his own high standards. [0]: https://locusmag.com/2019/05/alec-nevala-lee-reviews-the-pleasant-profession-of-robert-a-heinlein-by-farah-mendlesohn/ https://locusmag.com/2019/05/alec-nevala-lee-reviews-the-ple...