First published in 1951, Isaac Asimov’s space saga Foundation tells the story of a secretive science institute that tries to save a galactic empire from the worst effects of its coming collapse. Four of the five interrelated stories comprising the novel appeared in Astounding Science Fiction between 1942 and 1944. The book and its sequels set a high standard for speculative fiction and exerted a major influence on later science fiction works, including the Star Wars and Dune novels and films. Asimov added two books of two novellas each to complete the Foundation trilogy, and later completed two sequel and two prequel novels. Additional entries to the Foundation series were authorized by Asimov’s estate.

Asimov (1920-1992) is considered one of the most important science fiction writers of the 20th century. Extremely prolific, Asimov published some 500 fiction and nonfiction books along with hundreds of stories and essays. His works include mysteries, fantasies, children’s books, popular science, history, and religion. Asimov won many awards, including multiple Hugo and Nebula prizes for science fiction writing; the first three books of the Foundation series also won a Hugo for Best All-Time Series. Some of his works have been made into films, including I Robot, Bicentennial Man, and Nightfall. The Foundation books have also been developed as a TV series.

The 2021 Apple TV series tie-in paperback edition forms the basis for this study guide.

Plot Summary

Elderly mathematician Hari Seldon reveals that his new science, called psychohistory, predicts the collapse of the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire and the destruction of its capital city on the planet Trantor. Placed on trial for treason, Seldon convinces his inquisitors that his purpose is not to cause but to limit the coming tragedy. The emperor offers Seldon and his team of scholars the option to live in exile on the distant planet Terminus. On Terminus, they can preserve human knowledge in an Encyclopedia Galactica and prevent the worst of the coming dark ages. This project will be called the Foundation.

After Seldon dies, others take up his work; 50 years later, Terminus City Mayor Salvor Hardin realizes that a nearby kingdom of planets will soon attack the Foundation. His efforts to warn the Foundation’s Board of Trustees fail. Board chief Lewis Pirenne thinks only of his work on the Encyclopedia, cares nothing for politics, believes the Emperor will protect Terminus, and has the powerful Board completely on his side. During negotiations with representatives of the Empire and the enemy kingdom of Anacreon, Hardin realizes that the Board shares the galaxy’s growing distrust of science and over-reliance on authority—the very traits the Foundation aims to counteract. A 3-D recording of Seldon appears in which he explains that the Encyclopedia is mere busywork, and that the Foundation’s true purpose is to influence events so that a new and better Second Empire may be born.

During the decades that follow, the Foundation, under the watchful eye of Mayor Hardin, provides nuclear power and other technologies to the increasingly technologically inferior planets nearby. The engineers who maintain those worlds’ infrastructures are priests trained in a new religion, promoted by the Foundation, which teaches that advanced technology is a holy miracle provided by a Galactic Spirit. Citizens adopt the religion and depend on the Foundation for its bounty. The leader of the planet Anacreon, Prince Regent Wienis, disbelieves the religion and plots to conquer the Foundation, which has no military defenses. He sends a fleet of ships, but, as the moment of victory nears, Wienis finds that his engineer-priests have gone on strike, and all mechanical activity stops on Anacreon and its spaceships. Deposed and charged with religious crimes, Wienis takes his own life. The nearby planets sign peace treaties that give the Foundation new powers over them. On the Foundation’s 80th anniversary, Hari Seldon appears again via 3-D recording. He congratulates the Foundation for its recent success but reminds them that the new religion will fail if used as a weapon of attack.

The Foundation employs traders who infiltrate distant galactic regions to reintroduce advanced technology as the empire collapses. Trader Limmar Ponyets learns that his friend, Foundation diplomat Eskel Gorov, was arrested in the Askone system for trying to give them forbidden technology. Ponyets transfers a huge payment in gold for Gorov’s release; he also offers Askone’s leaders a device that can transmute iron into gold. One nobleman, Pherl, accepts the transmuter, but Ponyets records Pherl’s illegal use of the device and blackmails him into buying a shipload of nuclear technology. Pherl uses the gold and nucleics to win the throne of Askone, successfully reintroducing technology to the Askonian system. Pherl becomes an ally of the Foundation.

Twenty years later, the Korellian system is suspected of acquiring nuclear arms so the Foundation sends guild trader Hober Mallow to investigate. Mallow lands at an empty airport on Korell where a fugitive priest begs asylum from an angry crowd that suddenly appears outside the ship. Suspecting a setup by Korellian rulers—and knowing that Korell will blow up his ship if he protects the priest—Mallow turns the priest over to the crowd. Korell’s dictator, Asper Argo, agrees to accept trade with the Foundation as long as no priests are involved. Mallow travels to Empire-controlled galactic regions and learns that the decaying imperium still operates nuclear power plants but no longer knows how to maintain them. Back on Terminus, Mallow wins election as mayor but refuses to attack Korell to stop the growth of their nuclear fleet. A religious party, anxious to overthrow Mallow and go to war, brings charges that the mayor allowed the murder of a priest at Korell. Mallow proves that the priest was a Korellian secret agent sent to mislead him. The Korellians complete their nuclear arsenal and declare war, but Mallow predicts correctly that they have become too dependent on trade with the Foundation to destroy it; the war amounts to a few skirmishes. Mallow shows that the age of the priests is past and that traders will carry technology to the outlying planets during the coming decades. Beyond that, he leaves it to future Foundation leaders to find the way forward.