Looking Backward: 2000 to 1887 (1888)

AUTHOR: Bellamy, Edward

KEYWORDS: dress reform, socialism, women’s rights

SUMMARY (Bryn Skibo, edited Deborah Madsen)

Looking Backward creates and explains the utopian world upon which the sequel, Equality, builds. The Great Revolution and all of the social, economic, industrial, and moral changes that it wrought, described in the first novel, lead to the change in eating habits and attitudes towards nonhuman animals described in Equality.

“Preface.” From the “Historical Section Shawmut College, Boston, Dec. 28, 2000”
Explains that it can be difficult to understand the major social and industrial changes that have happened in such a short time  (presumably between 1887 and 2000) so the narrator has decided to present these transformations in the form of a “romantic narrative” presented by Doctor Leete (the “author” of the Preface).

Chapter I
The narration is continued by Julian West, who begins with his birth on 26 December 1857 when society was still divided into four parts (or “nations”): rich/poor/educated/uneducated (16). West and his family are wealthy, living from the inherited interest on his grandfather's investments. West is thirty years old in 1887, waiting for his marriage and for his house to be built, when there is a series of strikes, increasing every month, which are preventing both events. In hindsight, he remarks, the stark social inequality should have made the changes to come obvious, but West and his elite fellows believed that the status quo was both desirable and inevitable.

Chapter II
West travels with his fiancé and her family to Mt Bedsford, to visit the grave of her elder brother who died in the Civil War. Over dinner, the party discusses the newspaper reports of more strikes and they complain about the current state of affairs, with West saying that he could never live in Europe due to the push for socialism there, that China was right in excluding Western culture. They separate, and as West suffers from insomnia (he uses a “quack” doctor and animal mesmerist, Dr Pillsbury, to put him to sleep) he goes to his subterranean, cement-walled sleeping chambers, expecting to be woken in the morning by his “colored” servant, Sawyer.

Chapter III
West wakes up in the house of a physician, overhearing a muffled conversation that indicates he is being kept ignorant of something that has happened. West explains he fell asleep on “Decoration Day,” that is 30 May 1887, and has woken up on 10 September 2000.
After waking a second time, the physician explains to West that he has been in a trance, in a cement tomb under his home; the previous home clearly having succumbed to fire many years earlier. Due to West’s design, fresh air was brought into his sleeping chamber via a pipe and windmill on top of the house. West only believes the physician when he sees the Boston of 2000.

Chapter IV
The physician is relieved that West believes him, as the doctor knows the men of the 1800s were noted pugilists. The doctor introduces himself as Doctor Leete; he proposes that West make himself at home because Doctor Leete’s house is built on the site of West’s former house. West notes that men’s clothing has not changed very much and they converse about the changes between Boston of 1887 and the city in 2000. The first difference West notes is the lack of chimneys and smoke.

Chapter V
They walk around the city and West admires the grandeur of the buildings, assuming the individual owners are that much richer. Doctor Leete explains, that in fact all surplus wealth goes to the city itself so that everyone can enjoy it. They return to visit the women, whom West finds very beautiful and clearly healthy -- Doctor Leete's daughter, Edith, especially so. They converse and West is charmed by their clever company. The women retire but West is afraid to be alone with his thoughts and, although the doctor offers a sleeping draught, the two discuss how the economic and industrial systems were reformed to produce such grand cities. Doctor Leete explains that the rampant growth of corporations, gobbling up smaller businesses, led inevitably to class inequality and a lack of small business ownership; the popular call for a “monopoly to end all monopolies” grew until industry was taken over by one corporation, owned by the people.

In the following chapters, West is introduced to the comprehensive changes to all aspects of society, starting with the function of government that does not protect citizens against foreign enemies but rather  against the universal enemies of hunger and homelessness. Work is attributed to everyone and a market system ensures all trades are followed (e.g. shorter hours for the most arduous jobs). Intellectual work is not more attractive than manual work because the rigors of extended schooling are much harder than education for trades. In answer to West's question, Mrs Leete explains that domestic service is largely obsolete because laundry and cooking are done in industrial centers, homes are lit by electricity, and houses are not large so cleaning is easy. In extreme circumstances a servant can be hired and is paid for by the state; physicians are also paid for by the state. When West asks about the absence of bankers and merchants Leete explains that their professions have become obsolete. The buying and selling of goods is obsolete because goods are distributed as needed. The nation produces everything and gives everyone what they need; private consumption and private commerce are nearly impossible and are intensely discouraged as being anti-social. When West and Edith go shopping to see how the payment system works, West notes that the gender ratio of those who do the shopping is the same as in the 19th century. There are few clerks employed because their only task is to take an order and send it to the central warehouse. All stores carry the same goods at the same price.  Later, West asks about inheritance and learns that, unlike the source of his family income, people no longer pass down their possessions generationally because everyone has and uses what they need.

The social, economic, industrial, and moral changes described in the utopian world of this novel establish the conditions for the ethical veganism that informs the sequel, Equality.

Last updated on May 19th, 2024

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