Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887

A modern-English edition of Edward Bellamy’s 1888 utopian novel about social transformation, planned abundance, and the future of economic life. Bellamy’s book was one of the great publishing sensations of its age and inspired clubs, debates, and reform movements. This edition preserves the conceptual boldness of the original while making it faster and easier to read.

Looking Backward imagines a future Boston organized around coordination, equality, and efficiency rather than competition and chaos. Whether read as political fiction, social criticism, or a historical document of reform-minded imagination, it remains strikingly alive.

For readers interested in utopian thought, the history of socialism, or nineteenth-century visions of the future, this is a core text.