
Looking Backward: 2000-1887
'Looking Backward: 2000-1887 ' Summary
Looking Backward: 2000–1887 is a utopian novel by Edward Bellamy, a journalist and writer from Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; it was first published in 1888.
It was the third largest bestseller of its time, after Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. It influenced many intellectuals, and appears by title in many socialist writings of the day. "It is one of the few books ever published that created almost immediately on its appearance a political mass movement".
In the United States alone, over 162 "Bellamy Clubs" sprang up to discuss and propagate the book's ideas. Owing to its commitment to the nationalization of private property and the desire to avoid use of the term "socialism", this political movement came to be known as Nationalism not to be confused with the political concept of nationalism. The novel also inspired several utopian communities.
The decades of the 1870s and the 1880s were marked by economic and social turmoil, including the Long Depression of 1873–1879, a series of recessions during the 1880s, the rise of organized labor and strikes, and the 1886 Haymarket affair and its controversial aftermath. Moreover, American capitalism's tendency towards concentration into ever larger and less competitive forms monopolies, oligopolies, and trusts began to make itself evident, while emigration from Europe expanded the labor pool and caused wages to stagnate. The time was ripe for new ideas about economic development which might ameliorate the current social disorder.
Edward Bellamy a relatively unknown New England-born novelist with a history of concern with social issues, began to conceive of writing an impactful work of visionary fiction shaping the outlines of a utopian future, in which production and society were ordered for the smooth production and distribution of commodities to a regimented labor force. In this he was not alone between 1860 and 1887, no fewer than 11 such works of fiction were produced in the United States by various authors dealing fundamentally with the questions of economic and social organization.
Bellamy's book, gradually planned throughout the 1880s, was completed in 1887 and taken to Boston publisher Benjamin Ticknor, who published a first edition of the novel in January 1888. Initial sales of the book were modest and uninspiring, but the book did find a readership in the Boston area, including enthusiastic reviews by future Bellamyites Cyrus Field Willard of the Boston Globe and Sylvester Baxter of the Boston Herald.
Shortly after publication, Ticknor's publishing enterprise, Ticknor and Company, was purchased by the larger Boston publisher, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and new publishing plates were created for the book. Certain "slight emendations" were made to the text by Bellamy for this second edition, released by Houghton Mifflin in September 1889.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1888Genre/Category
Tags/Keywords
Authors

Edward Bellamy
United States
Edward Bellamy was an American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel Looking Backward. Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of nu...
Books by Edward BellamyDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton
The Throg task force struck the Terran survey camp a few minutes after dawn, without warning, and with a deadly precision which argued that the aliens...

Revolution by Mack Reynolds
This science fiction novel explores a possible future scenario where the Soviet Union collapses, delving into the political and social ramifications o...

Round the Moon by Jules Verne
Around the Moon, Jules Verne's sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, is a science fiction novel continuing the trip to the moon which left the reader...

Coming of Bill by P. G. Wodehouse
Ruth Delane is a beautiful and wealthy young woman who falls in love with Kirk, a charming but penniless artist. Despite the objections of her father...

Simon the Jester by William John Locke
Simon the Jester follows the journey of Simon de Gex, a successful politician facing a terminal illness. Determined to leave a positive mark on the wo...

People Minus X by Raymond Z. Gallun
In a chilling future, a disastrous scientific experiment decimates the moon and leaves millions on Earth dead. Through a revolutionary advancement, ar...

Martian Odyssey & A Valley of Dreams by Stanley G. Weinbaum
This collection of stories, originally published in *Wonder Stories* magazine, takes readers on a journey to Mars. The protagonist encounters a Marti...

Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs
It is an exciting adventure novel that transports readers to the mysterious and dangerous world of Venus. This book takes young readers on a thrilling...

Long Run by Edith Wharton
In 'Long Run' by Edith Wharton, a wealthy bachelor businessman, now in his later years, reflects on a passionate but ultimately thwarted romance from...

Giants on the Earth by Captain S. P. Meek
In a dystopian future, Earth has been conquered by the Jovian overlords for forty long years. The Jovians, with their advanced technology and disinteg...
Reviews for Looking Backward: 2000-1887
No reviews posted or approved, yet...