Reprieve from Paradise

Dystopia set after an atomic war. Extreme overpopulation is produced by an ethos that encourages reproduction, which means that the entire economy is directed at producing food. The majority of the people, called Freemen, are bred for docility and low intelligence. An underground movement with a hidden city at the South Pole aims to re-establish intelligence, and the people of the city are intelligent, revive science and human community, and, at the end of the novel, are in a position to create a better future for the entire world.

The author (1909-78) was born in Canada and became a U.S. citizen. He was a physician who taught neuroanatomy at the University of Nebraska Medical School.