Looking Backward

A staple of Progressive Era utopian novels, Edward Ballamy's Looking Backward follows young Julian West after he wakes up in the future to a society founded on humanist and scientific principles. Work is efficient and fair, industry is owned by the federal government, and goods are distributed equally. Looking Backward, written in 1888 eerily predicts many modern comforts and consumer innovations now taken for granted. The novel became a cult hit among America's intellectuals, with 162 'Bellamy Clubs' founded in America alone and influencing socialist and Progressive thought. Nonetheless, many of its ideals may leave a bad taste in a modern reader's mouth. George Orwell's 1984 served as a direct counter to Bellamy's state-utopia. Even in a post-Stalin world, Looking Backward endures as a thought-provoking experiment, deserving to be debated for its merits and shortcomings alike.