Looking Backward: 2000-1887 [Paperback]

Edward Bellamy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2005

"Looking Backward: 2000-1887" is considered to be one of the greatest and most widely read of the utopian novels. It is the story of a young gentleman from Boston who mysteriously wakes from a sleep of over a hundred years to find himself transplanted to a utopian futuristic world. This future world is one of prosperity, cooperation, and harmony. Edward Bellamy's classic novel inspired a rebirth of the utopian novel genre and has been an inspiration to the many forward-looking thinkers who have read it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Digireads.com (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1420925709
• ISBN-13: 978-1420925708
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #571,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, August 30, 2009

By 

wphockey (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (Paperback)

I greatly enjoyed this book. The fact that it was published in 1888, is mind blowing. It is still very much relevant to today's society. There are ton of great ideas that really make the reader think about. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is open minded to new ideas, a forward looking thinker, and/or interested in the structure of society. This is easily one of my favorite books.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Book--just don't buy this edition, June 16, 2010

By 

Suzanne Jackson "Suzanne Jackson" (St Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (Paperback)

This is a great book and would rate 4-5 stars. However, this version is a 'print on demand' type reprint. The quality of paper is good but the font is very small AND the text is pushed together: there is not much space between lines and there is NO spacing between chapters (where usually it would start on new page). The end result is a great book that is hard to read.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Boring but thought-provoking, May 24, 2011

By 

John Blackwell (Northern Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (Paperback)

I originally read this book because Isaac Asimov said it was the most boring book he had ever read. In a way he was right. Like "Moby Dick", the book is much more interesting to have read than to read.

The author's purpose was to describe what he thought was the ideal society. Since in 1887 he was living in a society which had resolved seemingly intractable problems like slavery, it seemed to him that a future society might also have solved problems that seemed intractable to his contemporaries.

In his imagined society, there is no conflict. Everyone chooses a job, and in return is assured of the necessities of life.

Perhaps the best way of describing the defects of the book is to note that the author argues that authors should not be part of this system, but should still be capitalists: in other words the socialism he advocates is for OTHER people. This is an easy pattern to recognise: left-wing politicians today send their own children to private schools, but insist that the public schools are perfect for other people's children. Then they get in their chauffeur-driven limosines to go to a meeting to plan to tax impoverished West Virginia coal-miners to pay to extend the Washington metro system on the grounds that other people shouldn't drive cars.