Looking backward: analysis of historical perspective and reflection

Political Science

Looking Backward

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze the book "Looking Backward" by Edward Bellamy. Specifically, it will provide a general overview of the book. When Bellamy wrote "Looking Backward," it "[W]as the most popular book at the turn of the century, printed in many millions of copies in the United States, translated into over twenty languages" (Bellamy v). The book is the author's attempt to predict the future while criticizing nineteenth century society, and many people felt the book was socialistic at the time. Many of Bellamy's predictions for the future were inaccurate and a bit outlandish, but many were startlingly accurate in their assessment of how life would change dramatically by the year 2000.

Bellamy's view of the 21st century is sometimes woefully inaccurate and even laughable, as with his description of Boston with its tree-lined streets. He writes, "At my feet lay a great city. Miles of broad streets, shaded by trees and lined with fine buildings, for the most part not in continuous blocks but set in larger or smaller enclosures, stretched in every direction" (Bellamy 43). He could not envision transportation, highways, or the gridlock of the future, and instead hoped cities would remain open and "tree-lined," rather than the clogged and littered mega-cities so many of America's cities have become.

He does get it right when it comes to many modern women, who are much more physically vital than nineteenth century women. He writes, "Feminine softness and delicacy were in this lovely creature deliciously combined with an appearance of health and abounding physical vitality too often lacking in the maidens with whom alone I could compare her" (Bellamy 46). He did not see the obesity epidemic coming, and again, in his utopian view, he assumes health and wellness will improve in the future. Bellamy seems to think that humans learn from their mistakes, and improve things for future generations, but that does not seem to be the case. He uses the same logic when it comes to business and industry in the future. He thinks everyone will make the same amount of money, and that small businesses will disappear. He has something there. Bellamy writes, "During the last decade of the century, such small businesses as still remained were fast-failing survivals of a past epoch, or mere parasites on the great corporations, or else existed in fields too small to attract the great capitalists" (Bellamy 52). Many small businesses cannot compete when large corporations enter their territory, so Bellamy seems to recognize that greed and capitalism will always exist, no matter how advanced our society becomes.