Book cover of Looking Backward

Book description

First published in 1888, Looking Backward was one of the most popular novels of its day. Translated into more than twenty languages, its utopian fantasy influenced such thinkers as John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, Eugene V. Debs, and Norman Thomas. Writing from a nineteenth century perspective and poignantly critical of his…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Looking Backward as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I recommend this book, not because it’s an excellent literary work, it’s not, but because of its unique time travel theme that’s Rip Van Winkleesque and its imaginative presentation of a future society. The author wrote this in 1887, and he imagined technological advancements unheard of at that time.

Things like radio, credit cards, and ordering products through simply the push of a button. Bellamy presents this picture through a future utopian socialism of the year 2000. I found reading a nineteenth-century man’s extraordinary glimpse of moving through time revelatory for my own addiction to understanding the mystery of time.   

From Robert's list on various modes of time travel.

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