Editing Looking Backward

{{short description|1888 Utopian novel by Edward Bellamy}}
{{use American English|date=August 2022}}
{{use MDY dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox book | 
| name          = Looking Backward: 2000–1887
| title_orig    = 
| translator    = 
| image         = Looking Backward.jpg
| image_size    = 200px
| caption       = <small>Cover of the Ticknor & Co. first edition of ''Looking Backward, 2000–1887''</small>
| author        = [[Edward Bellamy]]
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = 
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = 
| genre         = [[Utopian novel]]<br/>[[Science fiction]]
| publisher     = • Ticknor & Co.<br/>(Jan. 1888)<br/>• Houghton Mifflin <br/>(Sept. 1889)
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover|hardback]])
| pages         = vii, 470
| isbn          = <!-- NA -->
| preceded_by   = 
| followed_by   = [[Equality (book)|''Equality'']] (1897)
| wikisource    = Looking Backward, 2000-1887
}}

'''''Looking Backward: 2000–1887''''' is a [[utopia]]n<ref name="UtopianNYT2000">{{cite news |author=Rothstein |first=Edward |date=February 5, 2000 |title=Paradise Lost: Can Mankind Live Without Its Utopias? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/05/arts/paradise-lost-can-mankind-live-without-its-utopias.html |access-date=October 24, 2024 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |pages=B7}}</ref> [[time travel]]<ref name="TimeTravNYT">{{cite news |author=Sloat |first=Warren |date=January 17, 1988 |title=Looking Back at 'Looking Backward': We Have Seen The Future And It Didn't Work |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/17/books/looking-back-at-looking-backward-we-have-seen-the-future-and-it-didn-t-work.html |access-date=October 24, 2024 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |quote=an entertaining time-travel story with an upbeat ending.}}</ref> [[science fiction]] novel by the American journalist and writer [[Edward Bellamy]] first published in 1888.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 16, 2023 |title=Bellamy, Edward |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bellamy_edward |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction}}</ref>

The book was translated into several languages, and in short order "sold a million copies."<ref name="Translated1MM">{{cite news |author=Teller |first=Walter |date=December 31, 1967 |title=Speaking of Books: Looking Back at 'Looking Backward' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/31/archives/speaking-of-books-looking-back-at-looking-backward-looking-back-at.html |access-date=October 24, 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |pages=2, 12}}</ref> According to historian [[Daniel Immerwahr]], "In the 19th-century United States, only ''[[Uncle Tom’s Cabin]]'' sold more copies in its first years" than Bellamy's book.<ref name="BellamySynopsisNYT">{{Cite web |last=Immerwahr |first=Daniel |date=July 2, 2021 |title=The Strange, Sad Death of America's Political Imagination |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/opinion/us-politics-edward-bellamy.html |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=The New York Times}}</ref> 

The novel inspired several [[Commune (intentional community)|utopian communities]]. In the United States alone, over 162 [[Nationalist Clubs|"Bellamy Clubs"]] sprang up to discuss and propagate the book's ideas.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Walter James |title=Looking Backward 2000–1887, ''by Edward Bellamy'' |publisher=Penguin |year=1982 |isbn=9781101213018 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> According to [[Erich Fromm]], "It is one of the few books ever published that created almost immediately on its appearance a political mass movement."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fromm |first=Erich |author-link=Erich Fromm |title=Looking Backward 2000–1887, ''by Edward Bellamy'' |publisher=Signet |year=1960 |isbn=9780451524126 |pages=vi |chapter=Foreword}}</ref> 

''Looking Backward'' influenced many intellectuals, and appears by title in many [[socialism|socialist]] writings of the day. 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 ideology of [[nationalism]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bellamy |first=Edward |date=September 1890 |title=What "Nationalism" Means |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b2870886?urlappend=%3Bseq=305%3Bownerid=9007199274017653-327 |journal=[[The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art]] |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=289–300 |hdl=2027/uc1.b2870886?urlappend=%3Bseq=305 |via=HathiTrust}}</ref> 

==Synopsis==
Bellamy's novel is set [[Boston, Massachusetts]] and tells the story of a young American man named Julian West who, in 1887, falls into a deep, [[hypnosis]]-induced sleep and wakes up 113 years later. He finds himself in the same location ([[Boston, Massachusetts]]), but in a totally changed world: It is the year [[2000]], and while he was sleeping, the United States has been transformed into a [[socialist]] utopia.<ref name=UtopianNYT2000/> The remainder of the book outlines Bellamy's thoughts about improving the future. The major themes include problems associated with [[capitalism]], a proposed socialist solution of a nationalization of all industry, and the use of an "industrial army" to organize production and distribution, as well as how to ensure free cultural production under such conditions.

The young man is awoken to a guide, Doctor Leete, who shows him around and explains all the advances of this new age, including drastically reduced working hours for people performing menial jobs and almost instantaneous, internet-like delivery of goods. Everyone retires with full benefits at age 45, and may eat in any of the public kitchens (realized as [[Factory-kitchen|factory-kitchens]] in the 1920s–30s in the USSR). The productive capacity of the United States is nationally owned, and the goods of society are equally distributed to its citizens. A considerable portion of the book is dialogue between Leete and West wherein West expresses his confusion about how the future society works and Leete explains the answers using various methods, such as metaphors or direct comparisons with 19th-century society.

Although Bellamy's novel did not discuss technology or the economy in detail, commentators frequently compare ''Looking Backward'' with actual economic and technological developments.<ref name=BellamySynopsisNYT/> For example, Julian West is taken to a store which (with its descriptions of cutting out the middleman to cut down on waste in a similar way to the [[consumers' cooperative]]s of his own day based on the ''[[Rochdale Principles]]'' of 1844) somewhat resembles a modern [[warehouse club]] like BJ's, Costco, or Sam's Club. He additionally introduces a concept of "credit" cards in chapters 9, 10, 11, 13, 25, and 26, but these actually function like modern [[debit card]]s. All citizens receive an equal amount of "credit." Those with more difficult, specialized, dangerous, or unpleasant jobs work fewer hours. Bellamy also predicts both sermons and music being available in the home through [[cable radio|cable "telephone"]] (already demonstrated but commercialized only in 1890 as [[Théâtrophone]] in France).

Bellamy's ideas somewhat reflect classical [[Marxism]].<ref name=":7">{{cite web|access-date=2024-12-06 |author=Agnieszka Haska; Jerzy Stachowicz |date=2014-01-15 |title=Łowiki i stegozaury |url=https://blog.polona.pl/2014/01/lowiki-stegozaury/ |website=Polona/Blog. Przegląd Cyfrowej Biblioteki Narodowej}}<!-- auto-translated from Polish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> In chapter 19, for example, he has the new legal system explained. Most [[civil suits]] have ended in socialism, while crime has become a medical issue. The idea of [[atavism]], then current, is employed to explain crimes not related to inequality (which Bellamy thinks will vanish with socialism). Remaining criminals are medically treated. One professional judge presides, appointing two colleagues to state the prosecution and defense cases. If all do not agree on the verdict, then it must be tried again. Chapters 15 and 16 have an explanation of how free, independent public art and news outlets could be provided in a more [[libertarian socialist]] system. In one case, Bellamy even writes, "the nation is the sole employer and capitalist."<ref>{{citation |url=https://earnthis.net/10-things-brian-likes-7-time-travel
|title=10 Things Brian Likes: Time Travel|date=September 6, 2014 }}</ref>

==Publication history==
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 [[recession]]s during the 1880s, the rise of [[trade union|organized labor]] and [[strike action|strikes]], and the 1886 [[Haymarket affair]] and its controversial aftermath.<ref name=Bowman87>Sylvia E. Bowman, ''The Year 2000: A Critical Biography of Edward Bellamy.'' New York: Bookman Associates, 1958; pp. 87–89.</ref> Moreover, American capitalism's tendency towards concentration into ever larger and less competitive forms—[[monopoly|monopolies]], [[oligopoly|oligopolies]], and [[trust (business)|trusts]]—began to make itself evident, while emigration from Europe expanded the labor pool and caused wages to stagnate.<ref name=Bowman87 /> The time was ripe for new ideas about economic development which might ameliorate the current social disorder.

[[Edward Bellamy]] (1850–1898), a relatively unknown [[New England]]-born novelist with a history of concern with social issues,<ref>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' p. 96.</ref> began to conceive of writing an impactful work of visionary fiction<ref name=BackwardKrugman>{{citation |newspaper=[[New York Times]]
 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/opinion/technology-progress-innovation-satisfaction.html
 |title=Technology and the Triumph of Pessimism |quote=speculative fiction
  |author=Paul Krugman |date=June 28, 2022 |access-date=August 29, 2022}}</ref> shaping the outlines of a [[utopian socialism|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.<ref>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' p. 107.</ref>

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.<ref name=Bowman115>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' p. 115.</ref> 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.<ref name=Bowman115 /> Certain "slight emendations" were made to the text by Bellamy for this second edition, released by Houghton Mifflin in September 1889.<ref>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' pp. 115–116.</ref>

In its second release, Bellamy's futuristic novel met with enormous popular success, with more than 400,000 copies sold in the United States alone by the time Bellamy's follow-up novel, ''Equality,'' was published in 1897.<ref name=Bowman121>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' p. 121.</ref> Sales topped 532,000 in the US by the middle of 1939.<ref name=Bowman121 /> The book gained an extensive readership in [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]], as well, with more than 235,000 copies sold there between its first release in 1890 and 1935.<ref name=Bowman121 />

The ''Bellamy Library of Fact and Fiction'', by William Reeves, a radical London publisher, printer and bookseller was a systematic effort to organize this literature. The Bellamy Library codified series of texts designed to make political works, defined by their radical content and popular appeal, both intellectually and financially accessible to working-class activists and lower- middle-class radicals. It was especially popular among [[working men's club]]s.<ref>Beaumont, Matthew. “William Reeves and Late-Victorian Radical Publishing: Unpacking the Bellamy Library.” ''History Workshop Journal'', no. 55 (2003): 91–110.</ref>

<!--Andolfatto has all of the Chinese characters for the Chinese names-->
The first version of the novel published in China, heavily edited for the tastes of Chinese readers, was titled ''Huitou kan jilüe'' (回頭看記略). This text was later retitled ''Bainian Yi Jiao'' (百年一覺 ), or "A Sleep of 100 Years" and in 1891–1892 this version was serialized in ''[[Wanguo gongbao]]'';<ref name=Andolfatto>Andolfatto, Lorenzo. "[http://transtexts.revues.org/619 Productive distortions: On the translated imaginaries and misplaced identities of the late Qing utopian novel]" ([http://transtexts.revues.org/pdf/619 PDF version]). ''Transtext(e)s Transcultures'' (跨文本跨文化), 10, 2015. {{doi|10.4000/transtexts.619}}.</ref> the organization Guangxuehui (廣學會; Society for Promoting Education) published these pieces in a book format. This first translation, the first piece of science fiction from a Western country published in [[Qing dynasty]] China, was done in an abridged format by [[Timothy Richard]].<ref name=DDWangTranslatingp310>[[David Der-wei Wang|Wang, David D. W.]] "Translating Modernity." In: Pollard, David E. (editor). ''Translation and Creation: Readings of Western Literature in Early Modern China, 1840–1918''. [[John Benjamins Publishing]], 1998. {{ISBN|978-9027216281}}. Start: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni88Ddi_S2cC&pg=PA303 303]. CITED: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni88Ddi_S2cC&pg=PA310 310].</ref> The novel was again serialized in China in 1898, in ''Zhongguo guanyin baihua bao'' (中國官音白話報);<ref name=Andolfatto/> and in 1904, under the title ''Huitou kan'' (Looking Backward), within ''Xiuxiang xiaoshuo'' (繡像小說; Illustrated Fiction).<ref name=DDWangTranslatingp310/>

The book remains in print in multiple editions, with one publisher alone having reissued the title in a printing of 100,000 copies in 1945.<ref>Joseph Schiffman, "Introduction" to Edward Bellamy: ''Selected Writings on Religion and Society.'' New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1955; p. xxxviii.</ref>

==Precursors==
Though Bellamy tended to stress the independence of his work, ''Looking Backward'' shares relationships and resemblances with several earlier works—most notably the anonymous ''[[The Great Romance]]'' (1881), [[John Macnie]]'s ''[[The Diothas]]'' (1883),<ref>Arthur E. Morgan, ''Edward Bellamy'', New York, Columbia University Press, 1944.</ref> [[Laurence Gronlund]]'s ''The Co-operative Commonwealth'' (1884), and [[August Bebel]]'s ''Woman in the Past, Present, and Future'' (1886).<ref>Arthur E. Morgan, ''Plagiarism in Utopia: A Study of the Continuity of the Utopian Tradition With Special Reference to Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward"'', Yellow Springs, Ohio, privately printed, 1944.</ref> For example, in ''The True Author of Looking Backward'' (1890) J. B. Shipley argued that Bellamy's novel was a repeat of Bebel's arguments,{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} while literary critic R. L. Shurter went so far as to argue that "''Looking Backward'' is actually a fictionalized version of ''The Co-operative Commonwealth'' and little more".<ref>Robert L. Shurter, ''The Utopian Novel in America, 1865–1900'', New York, AMS Press, 1975; p. 177.</ref> However, Bellamy's book also bears resemblances to the early socialist theorists or 'utopian socialists' [[Étienne Cabet|Etienne Cabet]], [[Charles Fourier]], [[Robert Owen]], and [[Henri Saint-Simon]], as well as to the 'Associationism' of [[Albert Brisbane]], whom Bellamy had met in the 1870s.<ref>Carl J. Guarneri, ''The Utopian Alternative, Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century America'', (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1991), p. 368, p. 401</ref>

==Reaction and sequels==
{{main|List of sequels to Looking Backward}}

On publication, ''Looking Backward'' was praised by both the [[American Federation of Labor]] and the [[Knights of Labor]].<ref name="rew">Robert E. Weir, ''Workers in America: A Historical Encyclopedia''.Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, 2013 {{ISBN|1598847198}} (pp. 68–70).</ref> Many members of the Knights read ''Looking Backward'' and also joined Bellamy's Nationalist clubs.<ref name="rew" /> ''Looking Backward'' was also praised by [[Daniel De Leon]], [[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]] and [[Upton Sinclair]].<ref name="rew" />

In 1897, Bellamy wrote a sequel, ''[[Equality (book)|Equality]]'', dealing with women's rights, education, and many other issues. Bellamy wrote the sequel to elaborate and clarify many of the ideas merely touched upon in ''Looking Backward''.

The success of ''Looking Backward'' provoked a spate of sequels,<ref name=sequals>{{citation |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/utopias
|title=Utopias |access-date=August 28, 2022}}</ref> parodies, satires, dystopian, and '[[Anti-utopia|anti-utopian]]' responses.<ref>Jean Pfaelzer,''The Utopian Novel in America, 1886–1896: The Politics of Form'', Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press; pp. 78–94, 170–73.</ref> A partial list of these follows.<ref>This list was derived from G. Claeys ''Late Victorian Utopias: A Prospective'', (Pickering and Chatto, London, 2008), J. Pfaelzer, ''The Utopian Novel in America 1886–1896: The Politics of Form'', (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 1984), K. Roemer, ''The Obsolete Necessity: America in Utopian Writings, 1888–1900'', (Kent State University Press, Kent, 1976), K. Roemer, ''Utopian Audiences, How Readers Locate Nowhere'', (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 2003), C.J. Rooney, ''Dreams and Visions: a study of American utopias, 1865–1917'' (1997), F. Shor, ''Utopianism and radicalism in a reforming America, 1888–1918'', (Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut, 1997), and especially L.T. Sargent ''British and American Utopian Literature, 1516–1985: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography'' (Garland Publishing, New York, 1988).</ref>
The result was a "battle of the books" that lasted through the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th. The back-and-forth nature of the debate is illustrated by the subtitle of Geissler's 1891 ''Looking Beyond'', which is "A Sequel to 'Looking Backward' by Edward Bellamy and an Answer to 'Looking Forward' by Richard Michaelis".

The book was translated into [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] in 1892. Bellamy personally approved a request by Bulgarian author [[Iliya Yovchev]] to make an "adapted translation" based on the realities of [[Bulgaria]]n social order. The resulting work, titled ''The Present as Seen by Our Descendants And a Glimpse at the Progress of the Future'' ("Настоящето, разгледано от потомството ни и надничане в напредъка на бъдещето"), generally followed the same plot. The events in Yovchev's version take place in an [[environmentally friendly]] [[Sofia]] and describe the country's unique path of adapting to the new social order. It is considered by local critics to be the first Bulgarian utopian work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chitanka.info/text/20938-nachaloto|title=The Beginning|author=Ivaylo Runchev|publisher=Narodna Mladezh|year=1985|access-date=1 July 2013|quote=Фактически налице е произведение, отличаващо се от оригинала дотолкова, че следва да се говори за нов роман, първия ни български утопичен роман. ("Basically this work differs from the original to such an extent, that we can consider it a new novel, the first Bulgarian Utopian novel.)}}</ref>

The book also influenced activists in Britain. Scientist [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] credited ''Looking Backward'' for his conversion to socialism.<ref>Paul T Phillips, ''A Kingdom on Earth : Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880–1940.'' University Park, Pennsylvania : Pennsylvania State University Press. 1996. {{ISBN|978-0271015804}} (p. 194).</ref> Politician [[Alfred Salter]] cited ''Looking Backward'' as an influence on his political thought.<ref>[[Fenner Brockway]], ''Bermondsey Story : The Life of Alfred Salter''. London : George Allen & Unwin, 1949. (p. 6)</ref>

[[William Morris]]'s [[1890 in literature|1890]] utopia ''[[News from Nowhere]]'' was partly written in reaction to Bellamy's utopia, which Morris did not find congenial.<ref>{{cite web|last=Morris|first= William|title=Bellamy's Looking Backward|work=The William Morris Internet Archive Works (1889)|access-date=17 February 2024|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1889/commonweal/06-bellamy.htm}}</ref>

Bellamy's descriptions of utopian [[urban planning]] influenced [[Ebenezer Howard]] to found the [[garden city movement]] in England, and also influenced the design of the [[Bradbury Building]] in [[Los Angeles]].
[[Image:Edward Bellamy 2000 1887.jpg|thumb|German Reclam edition 1919]]
During the [[Great railroad strike of 1877|Great Strikes of 1877]], [[Eugene V. Debs]] argued that there was no essential necessity for the conflict between capital and labor. Debs was influenced by Bellamy's book to turn to a more [[socialist]] direction. He soon helped to form the [[American Railway Union]]. With supporters from the [[Knights of Labor]] and from the immediate vicinity of Chicago, workers at the [[Pullman Palace Car Company]] went on strike in June 1894. This came to be known as the [[Pullman Strike]].

The book had a specific and intense reception in [[Wilhelminian Germany]] including various parodies and sequels, from [[Eduard Loewenthal]], Ernst Müller and [[Philipp Wasserburg]], [[Konrad Wilbrandt]] and [[Richard Michaelis]].<ref>(Edward Bellamy, ''Ein Rückblick aus dem Jahre 2000 auf das Jahr 1887'', Translation Georg von Gizycki, editor Wolfgang Biesterfeld. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1983 {{ISBN|3-15-002660-1}} (Universal-Bibliothek 2660 [4]), Afterword of Biesterfeld, pp. 301f.)</ref>

The Russian translation of ''Looking Backward'' was banned by the [[Russian Empire|Tsarist Russian]] censors.<ref>Sylvia E. Bowman, ''Edward Bellamy abroad: An American Prophet's Influence''. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1962 (pp. 70–78).</ref>

In the 1930s, there was a revival of interest in ''Looking Backward''. Several groups were formed to promote the book's ideas. The largest was Edward Bellamy Association of New York; its honorary members included [[John Dewey]], [[Heywood Broun]] and [[Roger N. Baldwin]].<ref name="aem">Aaron D. Purcell, ''Arthur Morgan: A Progressive Vision for American Reform''. University of Tennessee Press, 2014 {{ISBN|978-1621900580}} (pp. 214–19)</ref> [[Arthur Ernest Morgan]], chairman of the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]], also admired the book and wrote the first biography of Bellamy.<ref name="aem" /><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/books/l-looking-forward-390020.html |title=Looking Forward
|author=Ken Brociner |date=January 21, 2001 |access-date=August 29, 2022}}</ref>

== Legacy and later responses ==
''Looking Backward'' influenced the novel ''[[Future of a New China]]'' by [[Liang Qichao]].<ref name=DDWangTranslatingp309>[[David Der-wei Wang|Wang, David D. W.]] "Translating Modernity." In: Pollard, David E. (editor). ''Translation and Creation: Readings of Western Literature in Early Modern China, 1840–1918''. [[John Benjamins Publishing]], 1998. {{ISBN|978-9027216281}}. Start: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni88Ddi_S2cC&pg=PA303 303]. CITED: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni88Ddi_S2cC&pg=PA309 309].</ref>

Despite never mentioning the book by name in any of his works, ''Looking Backward'' postulated a socialist-fueled utopia that "confounded"<ref name="Lynskey">{{cite book |last=Lynskey |first= Dorian|title-link=The Ministry of Truth (Lynskey book) |date=2019 |title=The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984 |location=New York |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |page=33 |isbn=9780385544061| quote=To Bellamy ... socialism was a tremendous product with terrible salesmen... This kind of utopian assumption confounded Orwell...}}</ref> Orwell, and his ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' can be seen as a dystopian counterpoint to the utopian genre, of which ''Looking Backward'' was a progenitor.{{r|Lynskey|page=27|q=Published in 1888, <nowiki>[''Looking Backward 2000-1887'']</nowiki> became the most widely read novel in the United States since ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''...synthesized extant trends, capitalising on the popularity of utopian visions such as W.H. Hudson's ''A Crystal Age'' and radical tracts like Henry George's phenomenally successful ''Progress and Poverty'' by merging the two forms.}} Orwell wrote of [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[The Soul of Man Under Socialism]]'' that "these optimistic forecasts make rather painful reading."<ref>Orwell, George. ''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell: Volume IV – In Front of Your Nose, 1945-1950'', ed. S. Orwell & I. Angus. London: Secker & Warburg, 1968.</ref>

''Looking Backward'' was rewritten in 1974 by American [[Socialist Labor Party of America|socialist]] science fiction writer [[Mack Reynolds]] as ''Looking Backward from the Year 2000''. [[Matthew Kapell]], a historian and [[anthropologist]], examined this re-writing in his essay, "Mack Reynolds' Avoidance of his own [[18 Brumaire|Eighteenth Brumaire]]: A Note of Caution for Would-Be Utopians".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kapell |first=Matthew |title=Mack Reynolds' Avoidance of his own Eighteenth Brumaire: A Note of Caution for Would-Be Utopians |journal=Extrapolation |volume=44 |issue=2 |date=2003|pages=201–208 |doi=10.3828/extr.2003.44.2.5 }}</ref>

In 1984, Herbert Knapp and Mary Knapp's ''[[Red, White and Blue Paradise|Red, White and Blue Paradise: The American Canal Zone in Panama]]'' appeared. The book was in part a memoir of their careers teaching at fabled [[Balboa High School (Panama)|Balboa High School]], but also a re-interpretation of the [[Panama Canal Zone|Canal Zone]] as a creature of turn-of-the-century Progressivism, a workers' paradise. The Knapps used Bellamy's ''Looking Backward'' as their heuristic model for understanding Progressive ideology as it shaped the Canal Zone.

A one-act play, ''Bellamy's Musical Telephone,'' was written by Roger Lee Hall and premiered at [[Emerson College]] in Boston in 1988 on the centennial year of the novel's publication. It was released as a DVD titled ''The Musical Telephone''.

==See also==
* [[Equality Colony]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== Further reading ==

*Matthew Beaumont, “William Reeves and late‐Victorian Radical Publishing: Unpacking the Bellamy Library.” ''History workshop journal'' 55.1 (2003): 91–110.
* Edward Bellamy, [https://archive.org/details/lookingbackward200bell ''Looking Backward, 2000–1887.''] Boston: Ticknor and Co., 1888. <small>– First edition.</small>
* Edward Bellamy, [https://archive.org/details/lookingbackward01bellgoog ''Looking Backward, 2000–1887.''] Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889. <small> – Second edition.</small>
* Edward Bellamy, [https://archive.org/details/HowICameToWriteLookingBackward-may1889 "How I Came to Write ''Looking Backward,"''] ''The Nationalist'' (Boston), vol. 1, no. 1 (May 1889), pp.&nbsp;1–4.
* Warren J. Samuels, [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.1984.tb02234.x "A Centenary Reconsideration of Bellamy's Looking Backward," ''The American Journal of Economics and Sociology'', 43(2):129–48].

== External links ==
{{wikisource|Looking Backward From 2000 to 1887|''Looking Backward From 2000 to 1887''}}
{{wikiquotes}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/edward-bellamy/looking-backward}}
* {{FadedPage|id=20080503|name=Looking Backward 2000–1887}}
* {{Gutenberg book|no=624}}
* {{librivox book | title=Looking Backward| author=Bellamy}}
* ''The Musical Telephone'' [http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/TheMusicalTelephone.htm – a play based on a chapter in Edward Bellamy's ''Looking Backward, 2000–1887'']

{{Edward Bellamy}}
{{Authority control}}

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