In 1888 a book by Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, was published which had an enormous impact at the time. William Morris' critical review of Bellamy's utopia, from the Jissue of Commonweal (I have slightly abridged this text the original version is here).Īdam Buick, Looking back on Edward Bellamy 'Looking back on Edward Bellamy' by Adam Buick, from the July 2016 issue of The Socialist Standard Below I present two additional articles that will enhance your understanding of Bellamy and Morris: These then are the main readings for this feature. In the same source you will find many other writings by Morris that are still worth reading: I especially recommend his 1884 lecture ' How we live and how we might live'. News from Nowhere is available online here. Morris intended it as a critical response and alternative to Bellamy's utopia, so it makes sense to consider the two works together. William Morris' News from Nowhere first appeared in serial form in the journal Commonweal of the Socialist League, starting in January 1890. Today, a century and a quarter later, they both seem outdated in many ways, but the divergent approaches to socialism that they represent still exist.Įdward Bellamy's Looking Backward: From 2000 to 1887 was first published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1888. I invite you to contemplate and compare two rather different visions of socialism as embodied in utopian novels that appeared at the same period - the late nineteenth century - in the United States and Britain.
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