Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward 2000-1887 Page 1 of 4

Edward Bellamy's
Looking Backward 2000-1887
Story Summary
The book is presented as a paper presented to the "Historical Section
Shawmut College, Boston, December 26, 2000" by Julian West (Bellamy
93).  He flashes back to tell the story of his life, "in the form of a romantic
narrative" (94).

West is a young, rich Bostonian in the year 1887.  He is engaged to a

beautiful woman, Edith Bartlett, and has not a care in the world for the
suffering of those less fortunate than he.  His only problem is an
occasional difficulty in sleeping.  West has an underground sleeping
chamber where he sometimes retires, and with the help of Dr. Pillsbury, a
"professor of animal magnetism" and "mesmerist" (106), he is hypnotized
into slumber.  West uses Dr. Pillsbury one last time before the mesmerist
leaves to another city, and settles down in his bed-chamber.

West is awakened by Dr. Leete in the year 2000.  Eventually, he discovers

what has happened; West's house burned down, and since his hidden
sleeping chamber was a secret to others, everyone assumed he died in
the fire.  Dr. Leete, whose house is now on the site of what used to be
West's home, discovered his hidden chamber while digging in his
backyard.  With the help of Leete's wife, as well as his charming daughter
Edith, West attempts to get acquantated with the Boston of 2000.

Leete explains that there was a huge merging of all companies into The
Great Trust, which results in a State-controlled government (126).  This
occurs smoothly, naturally, and peacefully; it was the "last, greatest, and
most bloodless of revolutions" (281).  Once achieved, the workforce
became a kind of labor army.  Goods are distributed through a credit card
system; there are no stores, just "direct distribution from the national
storehouses" (147).  Wages are equal for everyone, and all workers are
asked to do the best he or she can:  "All men who do their best, do the
same" (152).

West falls in love with Leete's daughter, Edith, and discovers she is the
great-granddaughter of his nineteenth century fiancée!   Shortly after they
reveal their love for one another, West awakens back in the nineteenth
century.  He is horrified, of course, to think he had "an extraordinary
dream, that's all" (296).  However, West really awakens, safe and snug in
the utopian Boston of 2000 "with unspeakable thankfulness upon the

http://web.archive.org/web/20041207134440/www.louisville.edu/~adwats01/bellamy.h... 6/22/2008
Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward 2000-1887 Page 2 of 4

greatness of the world's salvation and my privilege in beholding it" (310).

Utopianisms
We have already discussed the power of the State, the change over from
currency to credit, and the ever-present "tour guide."  We will briefly go
over some other commonalities.
Technology is what makes much of Bellamy's utopia possible.  Although
overall not as imaginative as Dodd or Bulwer-Lytton, the novel has
memorable details of how technology works in Boston 2000.  Despite the
factories that still churn out necessary products, there is a "complete
absence of chimneys and smoke" (117) and "large open squares filled with
trees" (115).  "Pneumatic transmitters" transport orders for goods, and
often the goods themselves (160).  Bellamy is most imaginative in his
description of a universal internet-like device.  Music and lecture "halls
are connected by telephone with all the houses of the city whose people
care to pay the small fee," providing twenty-four hours of programming
(165).   There is no national church, but there is a general Christian
religiousness in these Bostonians; on Sundays, they often listen to
sermons at home, through their net-radio (272-273).  Sadly, although
African-Americans and other people of color are never mentioned by
name, the utopia still retains nineteenth century prejudices.  Dr. Leete
proudly notes that everyone has realized "they are fellows of one race --
members of one human family" (180), but this does not include a seperate
group of "backward races, which are gradually being educated up to
civilized institutions" (184).  The superiority of the Bostonians is because
of good genetic breeding: "race purification has been the effect of
untrammeled sexual selection upon the quality of two or three successive
generations" (270).
There is equality for women -- to a point.  They are "relieved of the burden
of housework" (262), and in theory can be an equal part of the industrial
army.  However, "[w]omen being inferior in strength to men" are
"disqualified" for certain jobs (263).  Women workers are "allied" with
men, but are in their own  seperate branch, and are not considered
"integral"; the general of the women's industrial army sits in the
President's cabinet, yet a woman cannot become President (264).  Even
though men in this utopia have all become unselfish, patriotic worker
soldiers, women in the year 2000 are "indefatigable shopper[s]" (156).  In
Bellamy's view, women are "still" shopaholics, but men have been cured
of laziness.
The work hours vary depending on the complexity of the job; laborers of
difficult jobs may only work an hour or two a day, while less difficult jobs
have eight hour shifts.  Although Bellamy is evasive on details on the
education system (West, upon visiting schools with Dr. Leete, "shall not

http://web.archive.org/web/20041207134440/www.louisville.edu/~adwats01/bellamy.h... 6/22/2008
Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward 2000-1887 Page 3 of 4

describe in detail what I saw in the schools that day" [240]), but it is
public, universal, and free, all the way up to the collegiate level.  Crime is
non-existent.  The only criminals left suffer from "atavism," or bad genes
left over from half-savage people of the pre-utopian era, and are
hospitalized like any persons who have a disease (224).  Finally, art and
literature has benefitted from this socialist world; as Dr. Leete exults, "It
has been an era of unexampled intellectual splendor" (198), since the
capitalist system which made humanity struggle to exist has been
eradicated, the resulting freedom has allowed artistic talent to flourish as
never before.

Criticism
Looking Backward was the most successful utopian novel of the
nineteenth century, selling millions of copies worldwide.  Besides book
sales, we also can judge its popularity two other ways.  First, there was a
huge backlash of emotional editorials and articles that decried Bellamy's
utopian vision.  Second, the novel spawned dozens of parodies and
unauthorized "sequels," published by Bellamy's critics -- and by writers
cashing in on Backward-mania.  Inspired by the book, a political party
called Nationalists aspired to bring about Bellamy's utopia, and Bellamy
himself became involved in its attempted reforms (Parrington 76).

Read an excerpt from Bellamy's postscript to Looking Backward,

where he explains why his utopia is practical and attainable.

There are several faults with Bellamy's vision.  "It assumes a

perfectability in man," Parrington, Jr. writes (75), and this is a classic
mistake of many utopias; it assumes the citizens are already utopians. 
The labor army that leads the nation puts the society on a permanent at-
war footing, and therefore, it has the "defects of a state of war":

To call this a peaceful community is absurd:  one might as well call a

battleship a pleasure-craft because a modern one possesses a band and
shows motion pictures to the crew.  The organization of this utopia is an
organization for war . . . (Mumford 165)

William Morris, whose News From Nowhere was written as an alternate

utopia to Bellamy's, wrote in his review of Looking Backward:

It is necessary to point out that there are some Socialists who do not
think that the problem of the organization of life and necessary labour can
be dealt with by a huge national centralization, working by a kind of magic
for which no one feels himself responsible . . . [a]nd . . . that art, using that
word in its widest and due signification, is not a mere adjunct of life which

http://web.archive.org/web/20041207134440/www.louisville.edu/~adwats01/bellamy.h... 6/22/2008
Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward 2000-1887 Page 4 of 4

free and happy men can do without, but the necessary expression and
indispensible instrument of human happiness.  (qtd. in Kumar xv-xvi)

Still, despite the weaknesses, the novel "is a result of honest

idealism" (Parrington 75).  Bellamy truly believed in his utopia, and even
with its flaws, the fictional Boston of 2000 is one of the most well-planned
nineteenth century English utopias.  The literary value of Looking
Backward has not held up well in the hundred-plus years since its
publication (for example, Bellamy's dialogue is often uneven and overly
melodramatic), but as an attempt to reform the social structure, the novel
remains important and influential.
 
 
Home Page Front Page/Introduction Utopian Fic Hyperessay Bibliography
Index of Resources Subcultures Project English 320 Main Page email me!

http://web.archive.org/web/20041207134440/www.louisville.edu/~adwats01/bellamy.h... 6/22/2008