The Stars, Like Dust is widely considered as one of Asimov's worst works, even by the author himself. The story, part of Asimov's Empire series, involves a search for an ancient document that will help govern the galaxy -- the document is ultimately revealed to be the United States Constitution.

Asimov noted in his autobiography that the genesis of the story lay with H. L. Gold, editor of Galaxy magazine. Asimov felt that the Gold's judgement was at fault by attributing too much power to the Constitution as a document. Asimov later considered the premise highly improbable, and became annoyed at Gold for having persuaded him to write a novel based upon it. Whatever Asimov's opinion of the novel, he never actually withdrew it from publication.