Summary
In Looking Backward, Edward Bellamy presents a vision of a future utopian society as imagined from the perspective of a 19th-century man.
The protagonist, Julian West, a wealthy Bostonian, falls into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and mysteriously awakens in the year 2000.
To his astonishment, West finds that society has been entirely transformed.
The world of poverty, inequality, industrial strife, and private capitalism has been replaced with a harmonious, socialist commonwealth.
In this future, the government owns all means of production, and wealth is equally distributed.
Citizens receive an equal income, retire at age 45, and work jobs assigned based on ability and interest — all in the name of efficiency and fairness.
Through guided conversations with his 21st-century hosts, West comes to understand how the new system eliminated social ills like crime, labor exploitation, and class conflict.
The novel presents Bellamy’s vision of economic equality, nationalism, and a planned economy, sharply contrasting the chaotic, competitive capitalism of the Gilded Age.