Looking Backward, 2000-1887

Imagine a rich guy named Julian from 1887 who falls asleep in a secret underground room because of hypnosis to help his insomnia. He wakes up over 100 years later in the year 2000, and everything has changed: America is now a super fair place where the government owns all the factories and shops, everyone gets the same amount of money to buy what they need like food and clothes, kids go to school until they're adults, and there are no more rich or poor people fighting. Cool inventions like magic cards for money, music coming through phones into homes, and fast trains make life easy, and Julian falls in love with a nice girl while learning why the future is way better—no bosses yelling or people hungry!

Edward Bellamy's 'Looking Backward, 2000-1887' is a seminal utopian novel where protagonist Julian West, a privileged Bostonian from 1887, awakens from hypnotic sleep in an underground chamber to find himself in the year 2000 amid a perfected socialist society. Rescued by Dr. Nathaniel Leete, Julian learns that a peaceful 'Revolution' around 1910 abolished private capitalism, nationalizing all industry under a democratic government that operates as a vast public utility. Society thrives on an 'industrial army' organized by age and aptitude, universal education until 45, equal pay for equal work, and a national dividend system distributing wealth via non-transferable credit cards, eliminating poverty, strikes, and crime. Through dialogues with Dr. Leete and romance with his daughter Edith—revealed as the descendant of Julian's former fiancée—Julian explores institutions like women's integral roles in the workforce, public music distribution via telephone, rapid transit, and architecture adapted to plenty rather than defense. The novel critiques Gilded Age excesses while painting an optimistic vision of technological and social harmony, culminating in Julian's embrace of the new world and a brief epilogue imagining his relapse into 1887 sensibilities before recommitting to utopia. Bellamy's work ignited global socialist fervor, blending romance with blueprint for reform.