Looking Backward 2000-1887

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Decades after its first publication in 1888, this edition of Looking Backward, with a brilliant interpretative introduction by the editor, provides renewed currency for one of the most famous, popular, and influential literary utopias ever devised. Initially conceived as a simple fable of social happiness, Looking Backward evolved, as Edward Bellamy wrote it, into a portrait of a society organized along military lines dedicated to guaranteeing the well-being of all citizens by providing them with meaningful work. Bellamy’s attack on an unregulated capitalist system and his indictment of it made him a national figure in the United States and brought response from all parts of the world.