Summary
Summary of Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A future society becomes a story
Edward Bellamy imagines a young Bostonian falling asleep in 1887 and waking in 2000. Writing amid strikes, harsh factory labor and fears of class war, he uses this journey to picture a calmer national life. A kindly doctor and his family become the stranger's guides.
Their conversations turn questions about wages, wealth and poverty into encounters with a working society. Alongside the explanations runs a quiet love story, giving the argument a human setting rather than leaving it as an abstract plan.
Key idea 2
Julian sleeps through a divided world
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Key idea 3
A new Boston brings deep loss
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Key idea 4
The nation takes over industry
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Key idea 5
Shared service organizes working life
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Key idea 6
Equal credit replaces unequal pay
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Key idea 7
Better arrangements promise fewer social evils
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Key idea 8
Julian begins to question his comfort
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Key idea 9
Work and reward remain open questions
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love utopian fiction, science fiction, the history of socialist ideas, or nineteenth-century visions of the future. It also welcomes anyone drawn to questions about work, wealth and a fair society.
What this book is
Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887 is a novel by the American writer Edward Bellamy, published in 1888. It tells of a young Bostonian who falls asleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000. Bellamy wrote it in a time of strikes, hard factory labor and open fear of class war. He wanted to show his readers a calmer way for a nation to live, and he chose a story because a story could make that way seem real.
The book is part adventure and part guided tour. Its hero, Julian West, is shown the new Boston by a kindly doctor and his family. He asks the questions a reader would ask. How do people earn a living? Who pays whom? What happened to the rich and the poor? The answers make up most of the book, and they are given in long, friendly talks, with a quiet love story running beside them.
The novel became one of the most widely read books of its day, and it started a political movement. Readers formed clubs to push for its ideas. In about fifteen minutes you will hear how the story unfolds, what the future society looks like, and why people still argue over it. First, we go to Boston in 1887, to a man who cannot sleep.
In this summary
- 1A sleepless rich man in 1887 BostonFree
- 2Julian wakes in a new century
- 3One nation becomes the only employer
- 4Everyone serves in the industrial army
- 5Every citizen draws the same credit
- 6Daily life: music, meals and a sermon
- 7The old evils have lost their cause
- 8Julian, Edith and the weight of conscience
- 9How the book is told and what it left
Key point 1 of 9
A sleepless rich man in 1887 Boston
The story opens with Julian West, a young man from a wealthy Boston family. He tells it years later, looking back on his strange adventure. In 1887 he lives on inherited money and has never had to work. He is engaged to Edith Bartlett, the daughter of another good family, and they plan to marry once the house he is building for them is finished.
Julian's world is not calm. Strikes spread through the country, and workers and employers are in open conflict. Many people fear that society might break apart. Julian pays little attention to the poor around him, and the delay in building the house comes partly from a builders' strike. Bellamy uses this small detail to show how labor trouble touches even the comfortable.
Julian also suffers from terrible insomnia. The noise of building work near his house makes it worse, so he has an underground bedroom made. It is a stone chamber under the house, sealed against sound, with thick walls and a heavy door. Only his trusted servant Sawyer knows about it.
When even this room does not help, he turns to a doctor named Pillsbury, who uses mesmerism, an early form of hypnosis. On the evening of Decoration Day in 1887, Julian goes to the chamber after seeing Edith. Sawyer is told to wake him in the morning, and Dr. Pillsbury puts him into a deep trance. Julian sinks into sleep.
This opening does a lot of work. It sets out the problem the book wants to solve, which is a divided and anxious society. It also makes its hero a person of privilege, someone who has never questioned the system that benefits him. That makes him a good student for the lessons ahead. He is not a rebel. He is a man who must be taught.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
How did the nation take control of industry in Dr. Leete's account?
Right. “The change came peacefully, in the form of a vote.”Not quite. “The change came peacefully, in the form of a vote.”
What determines each citizen's yearly share in the new society?
Right. “Each citizen receives an equal yearly share of the nation's output, no matter his or her job.”Not quite. “Each citizen receives an equal yearly share of the nation's output, no matter his or her job.”
What troubling realization changes Julian's view of his former life?
Right. “Julian begins to see that his comfort in the old days rested on the suffering of others.”Not quite. “Julian begins to see that his comfort in the old days rested on the suffering of others.”
Who’s who
- Julian West
- A wealthy Bostonian from 1887, Julian awakens in another century and becomes the Leete family's guest.
- Dr. Leete
- A kindly physician, Dr. Leete welcomes Julian into his household and explains the organization of the new society.
- Edith Leete
- Dr. Leete's warm, intelligent daughter accompanies Julian around Boston and helps him understand unfamiliar customs.
- Mrs. Leete
- Dr. Leete's gracious wife welcomes Julian into the family home and helps the bewildered visitor feel comfortable.
- Edith Bartlett
- Julian's fiancée in 1887 belongs to his wealthy social circle and anchors his memories of familiar life.
- Dr. Pillsbury
- A mesmerist employed by Julian, Dr. Pillsbury induces the deep sleep that carries his patient across a century.
- Mr. Barton
- A preacher in the new Boston, Mr. Barton delivers a sermon that Julian hears through the telephone.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 78,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 15 min
- Listening time8 h 45 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887
What is Looking Backward about?
It tells of Julian West, a Bostonian who sleeps from 1887 to 2000. He wakes to find a nation that owns all industry, shares wealth equally and has ended poverty, and the book shows how it works.
Is Looking Backward a true story?
No, it is a novel. Edward Bellamy published it in 1888 as a work of imagination to argue for reform. Its time travel is a story device, and its future society is his own proposal.
What is the industrial army in Looking Backward?
It is Bellamy's name for the national labor force. Every citizen serves from twenty-one to forty-five, picks a trade after a period of common labor, and then retires with full support.
Is Looking Backward hard to read?
Not very. The language is clear. Readers who enjoy ideas will find it easy to follow.
Why was Looking Backward so influential?
It offered a calm, hopeful answer to the labor unrest of the 1880s. Readers formed Nationalist Clubs, and the book shaped later reform movements and many later works of utopian and dystopian fiction.
