Product Description
Mark Twain once famously said "there was but one solitary thing about the past worth remembering, and that was the fact that it is past and can't be restored."Ê Well, over recent years, The British Library, working with Microsoft has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collection of 19th century books.

There are now 65,000Ê titles availableÊ (that's an incredible 25 million pages) of material ranging from works by famous names such asÊ Dickens, Trollope and Hardy as well as many forgotten literary gems , all of which can now be printed on demand and purchased right here on Amazon.

Further information on The British Library and its digitisation programme can be found on The British Library website. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Completely unreadable, do not buy this edition!
At the onset of this edition of "Equality," the publisher attempts to explain why the rest of the book is an unreadable, haphazard mess of random letters, spacing, and punctuation. Apparently this book was scanned using (very poor) optical character recognition. The publisher, General Books LLC, did not find that they needed to edit this in the slightest. As a result, your reading experience will be flooded with phrases like this, an actual quote from this book: "owner's v legal righL af.-e?eciijig-the occupant." The chapters are also not organized properly, paragraphs are spaced terribly, and unnecessary line breaks run amok.

Save yourself the hassle of trying to interpret this machine-scanned garbage, and buy a legitimate copy of Equality from a legitimate publisher.

"Equality" has formed a critical part of my thinking on social justice
50 years ago my father gave me his copy of Bellamy's Equality - a well-worn often read tome in our family.It formed a critical part of my thinking ever since, and has guided me in making fundamental decisions about what is right and wrong, good and evil, and just and unjust.Anyone interested in social justice, or the abuse of political, religious, or financial power, should read and internalize what Bellamy was visualizing in his view of an ideal society in the late 1800's, based in part on his earlier work on his looking back from the Twenty-first Century Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (Penny Books).

Still a Vision for Tomarrow
In sharp contrast to the raving, misanthopic Capitalist who gave this excellent book one star, Bellamy laid out his vision for a humanistic society... one which was natural and beneficial to humankind, rather than one which takes advantage of the poor, weak, or less talented. It is sad that Bellamy's vision for the 20th century only saw some chance of coming true with the New Deal and some of the social movements of the 1960s. Today, when crony coporate capitalism, fundamentalist religion, and evil seekers of oil, money and power rule the mindset of this once hopeful country (USA), the chance for humanism is slim indeed.If only the likes of those misanthropic capitalists who mock and distort Bellamy were to dissapear, we'd have a much healthier planet.

And by the way, what we saw in the former USSR or in China today is NOT what Bellamy had in mind; but itself a misantropic, power-based dictatorship-based government which was/is just as unhumanistic as the U.S. is now. ... Read more

Product Description
Julian West, a feckless aristocrat living in Boston in 1887, plunges into a deep hypnotic sleep. When he wakes up in the year 2000, America has been turned into a rigorously centralized democratic society in which everything is controlled by a humane and efficient state. In little more than a hundred years, the horrors of nineteenth-century capitalism have been all but forgotten. Broad streets have replaced the squalid slums of Boston, and technological inventions have transformed people's everyday lives. Exiled from the past, West excitedly settles into the ideal society of the future, while still fearing that he has dreamt up his experiences as a time traveller.
Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward is a thunderous indictment of industrial capitalism and a resplendent vision of life in a socialist utopia. Matthew Beaumont's lively edition explores the political and psychological peculiarities of this celebrated utopian fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fast shipment
After only 5 days after i purchased my book, i received it right away. It was in great conditions and great timing. Thank you. I would definetely buy from them again. ... Read more

Product Description
"Looking Backward: 2000-1887" is considered to be one of the greatest and most widely read of the utopian novels. It is the story of a young gentleman from Boston who mysteriously wakes from a sleep of over a hundred years to find himself transplanted to a utopian futuristic world. This future world is one of prosperity, cooperation, and harmony. Edward Bellamy's classic novel inspired a rebirth of the utopian novel genre and has been an inspiration to the many forward-looking thinkers who have read it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Great Book--just don't buy this edition
This is a great book and would rate 4-5 stars.However, this version is a 'print on demand' type reprint.The quality of paper is good but thefont is very small AND the text is pushed together:there is not much space between lines and there is NO spacing between chapters (where usually it would start on new page). The end result is a great book that is hard to read.

Fatal Flaw
I read this book at the age of fourteen and ended up scratching my head, wondering, who would ever go along with that?Forty years later this question still persists.This book is not only unoriginal in borrowing its leitmotiv from H. G. Wells and Washington Irving, it completely denies the power and unchanging quality of human nature.Nobody is truly motivated by altruism... for long at least.Altruism always provides a person with a direct benefit that outweighs competing self-centered interests; it might be enhanced self esteem or the esteem of others, standing in the community, etc., but it can't credibly be argued that people will indefinitely suspend self interest or the interest of their loved ones to serve a greater good.Society has never worked that way in good times, and it's every man for himself when food is being rationed.That is why socialism can only be maintained for long at the barrel of a gun.It goes against human nature, it goes against reason, and it goes against every concept of personal liberty.
As an object lesson on the mental disorder that is liberalism however, the book performs admirably.But I suspect this was not the author's intention.

Looking Backward: 2000-1887
Fast shipping!!Will definitely do business again!!The book was packaged safetly and was in great condition!!

A must read for anyone seeking an alternative to the system of corp. greed.
In "Looking Backward", Bellamy,
gives a compelling metaphor of the economic system of corporate greed where 99% of the countries wealth is controlled by 1%. To repeat 99% of the people enjoy 1% of the wealth where 1% of the greedy control 99%.

Bellamy's "Looking backwards ", written in 1894, advances some very powerful ideas for an alternative economic system that would be very workable with current technology and addresses the problem where 96 billion pounds of food are wasted each year while 12 million children face hunger.

Utopian novel or socialist manifesto?
The plot isn't all that original, a man wakes up 100 years in the future to find that things have changed considerably. Much like Rip Van Winkle or The Time Machine, except the narrative is extremely dry and most of the novel is dialogue between the unintentional time traveler and his hosts. It's only 120 pages long, but it took me almost 2 weeks to finish reading it because a couple paragraphs in I would start nodding off. Eventually I found that it was more effective to just skim the book, as I could easily gather the main points hidden in the rambling dialogue.
I don't know why Bellamy didn't just scrap the generic plot and offer a socialist manifesto like Karl Marx or Adolf Hitler. Bellamy's ideas are wonderful, but the narrative sucks. His assumptions about 21st century America are way off. For instance, he imagines that America peacefully gives up its ineffecient capitalist ways and seemlessly takes up socialism. Given the impassioned debates about government run health care, it is proposterous to think that all the gun totting red necks in this country would sit idly by as the government took over everything.
If you really want to experience a compelling, as well as entertaining socialist society I suggest the smurfs. ... Read more

Product Description
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 written by legendary author Edward Bellamy is widely considered to be one of the greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Edward Bellamy is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, Looking Backward: 2000-1887 would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good Book
I needed this book for my history class and not only was it in great condition, I received it quickly after placing my order. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (1888) is one of the most influential utopian novels in English. The narrative follows Julian West, who goes to sleep in Boston in 1887 and wakes in the year 2000 to find that the era of competitive capitalism is long over, replaced by an era of co-operation. Wealth is produced by an "industrial army" and every citizen receives the same wage.

This edition contains a rich selection of appendices, including: excerpts from Bellamy's Equality and other writings; contemporary responses (by William Morris, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and others); excerpts from utopian works by Morris and William Dean Howells; and an excerpt from Henry George’s Progress and Poverty. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An Archtypical Utopia
Let us start by discussing the characteristics of the modern utopia, which began in the nineteenth century and lasted up to the present. The modern utopia was sometimes isolated by time or by alternate worlds rather than simply by space (such as an island or a mountain top). It also tended to be larger than utopias of the past, sometimes even global in scope. It was no longer treated as a static, unchanging society as much as it was treated like one stage of historical development. It was sometimes (though not always) more high tech than previous utopias. Modern utopias were sometimes (though not always) urban rather than agrarian. Modern utopian writers were more concerned with individual rights and freedoms in utopia, issues which did not bother writers like Plato or Sir Thomas More.

There are a great many good modern utopian novels. But I believe that to date there are seven truly great ones. They are Edward Belamy's _Looking Backward_ (1888), William Morris's _News from Nowhere_ (1890), H.G. Wells's _A Modern Utopia_ (1905), Austin Tappin Wright's _Islandia_ (1942), Hermann Hesse's _Magister Ludi_ (1943, trans. 1950), B.F. Skinner's _Walden Two_ (1948), and Ursula K. Le Guin's _The Dispossesed_ (1974). These novels form a collective bar of quality. In evaluating the quality of other utopian novels, I hold them to the standards of these works. Does a utopia, for example, have the intellectual rigor of _Walden Two_? Is its setting as concrete and realistic as that of _Islandia_? Does it have the beauty of _News from Nowhere_? The literary subtlety of _The Dispossesed_?

What is it, then, that makes Edward Bellamy's _Looking Backward_ so outstanding? To put it simply, it is the _archtypical_ modern utopian novel. It has most of the characteristics listed above. It inspired hundreds of imitations right after it first appeared-- some in agreement, some in the form of rebuttals. Even as late as the 1970s, writers like Mack Reynolds were writing imitations of Bellamy. It has been satirized and parodied. It inspired a short-lived political movement, the Nationalist Party. (At one time, there were over 150 Nationalist Clubs in America.) Whether you are an enthusiast who hands out copies of utopian novels to your friends or a steely-jawed capitalist who gives one-star reviews to utopian novels, you probably think about _Looking Backward_ when you think about utopias.

Bellamy's socialistic utopia has been criticised for being mechanistic and impersonal, and many modern readers would probably argue that consolidated government and business is not necessarily better. A third argument advanced against Bellamy (and indeed against a great many other utopian novels) is that he assumes too readily that rational behavior and happiness will follow from the proper social conditions. Yet Bellamy nevertheless has a point. If we are going to live in a truly great society, we must first meet the basic needs of all of its members. They must receive food, clothing, shelter, education, and job opportunities. Bellamy offers a convincing plan to meet these needs, and his satire of the shortcomings and cruelties of a capitalistic society still stings:

I cannot do better than to compare society as it was then [the nineteenth century] to a prodigious coach which the masses of humanity were harnessed to and dragged toilsomely along a very hilly and sandy road. The driver was hunger, and permitted no lagging, though the pace was necessarily very slow. Despite the difficulty of drawing the coach at all along such a hard road, the top was covered with passengers who never got down, even at the steepest ascents. These seats on top were very breezy and comfortable. Well up out of the dust, their inhabitants could critically discuss the merits of the straining team. (3)

Bellamy should also receive some credit for his plot. True, it is thin. But he was the first writer to set a utopia in the future rather than on an island or lost valley, and he was the first to imagine a high-tech utopia on a grand scale. Bellamy is probably not read as much today as he was fifty years ago, but he still deserves attention. Pick up a copy of this novel.

Note: There are a number of editions of _Looking Backward_ floating about, but the Broadview edition is especially fine. It is a sturdy, handsomely printed paperback. It has an excellent introduction by Alex MacDonald, a biographical chronology, and a good bibliography. There are a series of appendices of contemporary reviews, commentaries, poems, and excerpts from other utopian writing of the day. It is well worth the few extra dollars that you may spend.

Classic Victorian fantasy
Written during the era of the worst excesses of the "gilded age" and some of America's worst early labor upheavals including the Great Strike of 1877 and Haymarket and just prior to the Pullman and Homestead strikes. Looking Backward is an expression of Bellamy's faith that the industrial age and industrial cities could be made to work for all, not just the few. The book, a top seller of its time, above all shows that our ancestors believed they could reach the future without perishing.

Edward Bellamy's classic utopian novel and other writings
Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward 2000-1887" remains the most successful and influential utopian novel written by an American writer mainly because the competition consists mostly of dystopian works, from Jack London's "The Iron Heel" to Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," or science fiction works like Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Dispossessed." Still, I do not mean to give the impression that Bellamy's 1888 novel gets this honor by default. Magazine covers in 1984 were devoted to judging the track record of George Orwell's dystopian classic and I would argue that Bellamy deserves the same sort of consideration now that we have reached the 21st century. I certainly intend to use him to that end in my upcoming Utopian Images class.

At the end of the 19th century Bellamy creates a picture of a wonderful future society. Bellamy's protagonist is Julian West, a young aristocratic Bostonian who falls into a deep sleep while under a hypnotic trance in 1887 and ends up waking up in the year 2000 (hence the novel's sub-title). Finding himself a century in the future in the home of Doctor Leete, West is introduced to an amazing society, which is consistently contrasted with the time from which he has come. As much as this is a prediction of a future utopia, it is also a scathing attack on the ills of American life heading into the previous turn of the century. Bellamy's sympathies are clearly with the progressives of that period.

"Looking Backward" does not have a narrative structure per se. Instead West is shown the wonders of Boston in the year 2000, with his hosts explaining the rationale behind the grand civic improvements. For example, he discovers that every body is happy and no one is either rich or poor, all because equality has been achieved. Industry has been nationalized, which has increased efficiency because it has eliminated wasteful competition. This is a world with no need of money, but every citizen has a sort of credit card that allows them to make individual purchases, although everyone has the same montly allowance. In Bellamy's world is so ideal that it does not have any police, a military, any lawyers, or, best of all, any salesmen. Education is so valued that it continues until students reach the age of 21, at which point all citizens enter the work force, where they will stay until the age of 45. Men and women are compensated equally, but there are some distinctions between job on the basis of gender, and pregnancy and motherhood are taken into account.

Bellamy was living during the start of the Industrial Revolution, and like Francis Bacon and Tomasso Campanella who wrote during the height of the Age of Reason, he sees science and human ingenuity as being what will solve all of humanity's problems. He does not get into too many details regarding the comforts of modern living in the future, but there are several telling predictions (e.g., something very much like radio). However, it is clear that Bellamy is writing primarily to talk about economics and sociology, especially because he always compares his idealized future with the problems of his own time.

Obviously Bellamy's critique of the late 19th century will be of less interest to today's students that his various predictions on the both the future and an ideal world, unless they are specifically studying the American industrial revolution. But the latter two are enough to make "Looking Backward" deserve to be included in a current curriculum and I am looking foward to how well my students think Bellamy predicted the world in which we now find ourselves living.This particular edition, while not a Norton Critical Edition, does have a nice selection of additional readings in the back consisting of some of Bellamy's other writings as well as contemporary works by writers of other utopias and social commentaries such as William Morris, Charlotte Perkins, Henry Lloyd George, and William Dean Howells.All of these appendices provide a context for Bellamy's novel in terms of late 19th-century utopianism. ... Read more

Product Description

Living as we do in the closing year of the twentieth century, enjoying the blessings of a social order at once so simple and logical that it seems but the triumph of common sense, it is no doubt difficult for those whose studies have not been largely historical to realize that the present organization of society is, in its completeness, less than a century old. No historical fact is, however, better established than that till nearly the end of the nineteenth century it was the general belief that the ancient industrial system, with all its shocking social consequences, was destined to last, with possibly a little patching, to the end of time. How strange and wellnigh incredible does it seem that so prodigious a moral and material transformation as has taken place since then could have been accomplished in so brief an interval! The readiness with which men accustom themselves, as matters of course, to improvements in their condition, which, when anticipated, seemed to leave nothing more to be desired, could not be more strikingly illustrated. What reflection could be better calculated to moderate the enthusiasm of reformers who count for their reward on the lively gratitude of future ages!

The object of this volume is to assist persons who, while desiring to gain a more definite idea of the social contrasts between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, are daunted by the formal aspect of the histories which treat the subject. Warned by a teacher's experience that learning is accounted a weariness to the flesh, the author has sought to alleviate the instructive quality of the book by casting it in the form of a romantic narrative, which he would be glad to fancy not wholly devoid of interest on its own account.

The reader, to whom modern social institutions and their underlying principles are matters of course, may at times find Dr. Leete's explanations of them rather trite--but it must be remembered that to Dr. Leete's guest they were not matters of course, and that this book is written for the express purpose of inducing the reader to forget for the nonce that they are so to him. One word more. The almost universal theme of the writers and orators who have celebrated this bimillennial epoch has been the future rather than the past, not the advance that has been made, but the progress that shall be made, ever onward and upward, till the race shall achieve its ineffable destiny. This is well, wholly well, but it seems to me that nowhere can we find more solid ground for daring anticipations of human development during the next one thousand years, than by "Looking Backward" upon the progress of the last one hundred.





Download Looking Backward Now! ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Shays' Rebellion, 1786-1787; Fiction / Historical; Fiction / Romance / Historical; Literary Criticism / General; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Edward Bellamy biography by Sylvia E. Bowman
This is a biography of Edward Bellamy by Sylvia E. Bowman. It provides lots of little-known information detailing how Edward Bellmay's scheme for an "industrial army" influenced WWII, and the Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 60 million people slaughtered; the People's Republic of China, 50 million; and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, 20 million. The book provides a lot of support for the warning that Socialists are nuclear bombs, and socialism is nuclear war. Another author, Arthur Lipow, states that "Bellamy's authoritarian socialist views were an historical precursor of totalitarian collectivist ideological currents."

This book could use some updating about new discoveries. American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society and Freemasons) also bear some blame for the notorious symbol used by the National Socialist German Workers Party.

The same symbol was used by the Theosophical Society during the time when the Bellamys, Freemasons and the Theosophical Society worked together. They also helped spread the stiff arm salute via the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings.

The symbol was used as alphabetical symbolism for socialism, and adopted later by German socialists as their flag symbol. Although an ancient symbol, was altered for use as overlapping S-letters for 'socialism.' It was deliberately turned 45 degrees counter clockwise and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen VW logos.

American Socialists also created the stiff-arm salute of German socialism. The early Pledge of Allegiance (created by Francis Bellamy in 1892) used a straight arm salute, not the modern hand over the heart.

Edward Bellamy's book "Looking Backward" was an international bestseller that launched the nationalism movement worldwide. Edward's book was translated into every major language, including German. They wanted government to take over all schools and impose robotic chanting to flags. The Pledge's early right-arm salute was not an ancient Roman salute, and the 'ancient Roman salute' myth came from the Pledge.

All of the above are modern discoveries by the USA's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance, the author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets." People were persecuted for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German symbol flag). ... Read more

Product Description

Through vivid and searching portraits of these three redoubtable journalists, prizewinning historian John L. Thomas traces for the first time the evolving ideologies of the most significant reformers of their age.

George's Progress and Poverty, Bellamy's Looking Backward, and Lloyd's Wealth against Commonwealth each in its turn became an international best-seller, championing a course of national policy and social reform that owed allegiance neither to the large-scale capitalist model then emerging, nor to the bureaucratic socialism espoused on the left. Also common to the vast writings of all three were a deep distrust of partisan machine politics and a mounting sense of social crisis which neither spoilsmanship nor materialism seemed able to address.

Seeking instead diversity and cooperation within society, small economic units, and simplicity in government, the authors of these works were moved to defend strikes during the heyday of industrial capitalism. They spoke out for international peace when imperialism was rampant. They called for the preservation of community values in the face of urban sprawl. And they urged the goals of brotherhood and interdependence in an age when survival of the fittest was seen as holy writ.

They failed magnificently as apostles of a radical culture based on the ideal of a community, yet their intellectual legacy was not lost: their heirs include the broad movement that took the name Progressive, the New Deal, and the hopeful crusades of the 1960s. This magnificent book is their memorial and their history.

Product Description
Collected in this volume are nine of Bellamy's finest tales of mystery and imagination. Defying conventional genres, his speculative fiction is far-ranging in mode and theme. In 'To Whom This May Come' we find ourselves on a South Sea Island inhabited entirely by mindreaders; there's the bizarre humor of 'With The Eyes Shut', a disquieting satire on technology gone mad; 'Two Days Solitary Imprisonment' has all of the brooding atmosphere of a modern whodunit. Franklin Rosemount's provocative introduction explores the continuity between these early tales and Bellamy's later utopia, and argues that "the changes Bellamy made in his utopia during the last ten years of his life - the withering away of authoritarian features that had marred 'Looking Backward', and the expansion of its libertarian, working class, feminist and ecological dimensions in his last great work, 'Equality' - not only reflected the author's basically positive response to his anarchist, Marxist and feminist critics, but also brought his vision of the future into line with key elements of his own earlier fiction." Illustrated with the collages of Hal Rammel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Definitely apparitions...
I was intrigued with Bellamy's "Looking Backward" and, besides the utopian philosophy, was fascinated by his technological visions. This book contains nine (9) short stories and an appendix with "Plots for Stories." According to the introduction, "each tale challenges the conventional, reified notions of reality, behavior, society or human nature." I'm not sure about that. Five of the stories seem to fit that bill, while the other four seemed merely Victorian in nature. Either way, the introduction was definitely detailed and informative.

The title, "Apparitions of Things to Come," is not really accurate either. There didn't seem to be many visionary tales. There was only one tale which definitely fit in the technological vision category. But, I would have bought a used version just to have read it. ... Read more

Product Description
This Halcyon Classics eBook contains twenty books and short stories by late 19th century utopian writer Edward Bellamy, including his famous 'Looking Backward: 2000-1887' and its sequel, 'Equality.'Includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.


Novels:

Looking Backward From 2000 to 1887
Equality
Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process
The Duke of Stockbridge
Miss Ludington’s Sister


Short Stories:

At Pinney’s Ranch
The Blindman’s World
The Cold Snap
Deserted
An Echo of Antietam
Hooking Watermelons
Lost
A Love Story Reversed
The Old Folks’ Party
A Positive Romance
Pott’s Painless Cure
A Summer Evening’s Dream
To Whom This May Come
Two Days’ Solitary Imprisonment
With the Eyes Shut
... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Actually a Very Good Book!
Joseph Myers has created a new version of "Looking Backward" written in the precise style and using the exact structure of Bellamy's "Looking Backward," but focused more on spiritual and moral possibilities, rather than political and economic possibilities.

Any true fan of "Looking Backward" should first read Bellamy's 1897 sequel, "Equality," which continues the story where "Looking Backward" left off."Equality" is more convincing and more intellectually mature than "Looking Backward."But having given the "real" Bellamy his due, go ahead and read the Joseph Myers version - it is an enlightening and intellectually challenging romp through science, philosophy, religion, new age ideology, and the meaning of life.

Myers earnestly believes that he is Bellamy reincarnated.However, whether he is or isn't ends up being beside the point; the book stands on its own as an effective indictment of our society's moral and spiritual achievements every bit as convincing as the original Bellamy's critique of our politics and economics.

I am not certain that a reincarnated Edward Bellamy would take another shot at "Looking Backward."But, eerily, the Myers' version captures a great deal more of Bellamy than one would expect -- the stilted language, the unnecessary sexism, the relentlessly logical prose, and more.For example, who else besides Edward Bellamy could combine such a keen social vision with such a hapless inability to predict scientific advances?The original Bellamy failed to predict the electronic storage and wireless transmission of music that were realized just after his death.Myers' Bellamy obviously intends not to make the same mistake this time around, now predicting air cars, gravity motors, and a future geology that is - well, nothing you would expect.

The book's strength is its direct and forthright attempt to discuss hard spiritual and moral issues that cross religious, political, and national boundaries.The book's weakness is its inability to break out of Bellamy's proper 19th century voice, which is assigned to every character, even a 150-year old Tibetan Lama.The book's persistently Christian tone is moderated by the constant development of principles and theories drawn from all religions.Fans of Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" will find a similarly impressive biblical reinterpretation.

If you believe in the value of reading books that challenge your beliefs, this one will challenge many of your beliefs.If you want to explore some ideas about architecture, agriculture, public service, psychedlic drugs, and social organization radically different from what most people believe today, you won't be disappointed.And if you want to read one of the very few utopian novels written near the end of the 20th century, you won't find one more earnest. ... Read more

Product Description
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Edward Bellamy biography by Arthur E. Morgan
This is a biography of Edward Bellamy by Arthur E. Morgan. It provides lots of little-known information detailing how Edward Bellmay's scheme for an "industrial army" influenced WWII, and the Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 60 million people slaughtered; the People's Republic of China, 50 million; and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, 20 million. The book provides a lot of support for the warning that Socialists are nuclear bombs, and socialism is nuclear war. Another author, Arthur Lipow, states that "Bellamy's authoritarian socialist views were an historical precursor of totalitarian collectivist ideological currents."

This book could use some updating about new discoveries. American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society and Freemasons) also bear some blame for the notorious symbol used by the National Socialist German Workers Party.

The same symbol was used by the Theosophical Society during the time when the Bellamys, Freemasons and the Theosophical Society worked together. They also helped spread the stiff arm salute via the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings.

The symbol was used as alphabetical symbolism for socialism, and adopted later by German socialists as their flag symbol. Although an ancient symbol, was altered for use as overlapping S-letters for 'socialism.' It was deliberately turned 45 degrees counter clockwise and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen VW logos.

American Socialists also created the stiff-arm salute of German socialism. The early Pledge of Allegiance (created by Francis Bellamy in 1892) used a straight arm salute, not the modern hand over the heart.

Edward Bellamy's book "Looking Backward" was an international bestseller that launched the nationalism movement worldwide. Edward's book was translated into every major language, including German. They wanted government to take over all schools and impose robotic chanting to flags. The Pledge's early right-arm salute was not an ancient Roman salute, and the 'ancient Roman salute' myth came from the Pledge.

All of the above are modern discoveries by America's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance, author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets." People were persecuted for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German symbol flag). ... Read more