Looking backward

2000-1887

No cover

Edward Bellamy: Looking backward (2000, Signet Classic)

222 pages

English language

Published Sept. 6, 2000 by Signet Classic.

ISBN:
978-0-451-52763-9
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (1 review)

Bellamy's novel tells the story of a hero figure named Julian West, a young American, who towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up 113 years later. He finds himself in the same location (Boston, Massachusetts), but in a totally changed world: It is the year 2000, and while he was sleeping, the United States has been transformed into a socialist utopia. The remainder of the book outlines Bellamy's thoughts about improving the future. The major themes include problems associated with capitalism, a proposed socialist solution of a nationalization of all industry, and the use of an "industrial army" to organize production and distribution, as well as how to ensure free cultural production under such conditions.

5 editions

Subjects

  • Two thousand, A.D. -- Fiction.
  • Social problems -- Fiction.
  • Time travel -- Fiction.
  • Utopias -- Fiction.
  • Boston (Mass.) -- Fiction.