Looking Backward

Looking Backward is Edward Bellamy's visionary utopian novel, a landmark of speculative fiction that has inspired generations of readers with its imaginative exploration of a future society. First published in 1888, the novel follows Julian West, a wealthy young man from nineteenth-century Boston who mysteriously awakens in the year 2000 to discover a world transformed by social progress, technological innovation, and economic cooperation. Guided by his new companions, Julian is introduced to a society that has overcome many of the inequalities and hardships of his own era. As he compares the customs, institutions, and values of the future with those of the nineteenth century, Bellamy presents thought-provoking ideas about work, education, industry, equality, and the organization of society.