Showing Ballroom of the Skies by John D. MacDonald
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Ballroom of the Skies is a 1952 science fiction novel by John D. MacDonald. The story involves Earth sometime after World War III, with Brazil, Iran, and India as the prevailing superpowers. The plot reveals the reasons behind humanity's history of perpetual war and strife, which is that leaders of an intergalactic empire are always chosen from among humans but must first be tested by extreme hardship.[