With the publication, in the July 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, of the story Seesaw, van Vogt began unfolding the complex tale of the oppressive Empire of Isher and the mysterious Weapon Shops. This volume, The Weapon Shops of Isher, includes the first three parts of the saga and introduces perhaps the most famous political slogan of science fiction: The Right to Buy Weapons is the Right to Be Free. Born at the height of Nazi conquest, the Isher stories suggested that an oppressive government could never completely subjugate its own citizens if they were well armed. The audience appeal was immediate and has endured long beyond other stories of alien invasion, global conflict and post war nuclear angst.

Ace Books, 1966. Paperback with cover code M-153. This story was serialized in Astounding in 1943, then published in book form in 1947. A revised edition appeared in 1952; all subsequent appearances contain the 1952 text. The events in the novel take place approximately seven years after the events described in The Weapon Shops of Isher (1951). The first paperback edition, part of an Ace Double, was retitled "One Against Eternity."