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''Looking Backward: 2000–1887'' is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a journalist and writer from Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; it was first published in 1888. According to Erich Fromm, ''Looking Backward'' is "one of the most remarkable books ever published in America".〔Edward Bellamy, ''Looking Backward 2000-1887'', with a Foreword by Erich Fromm, Signet, 1960. ISBN 0-451-52412-8〕 It was the third-largest bestseller of its time, after ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' and ''Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ''.〔 It influenced a large number of intellectuals, and appears by title in many of the major Marxist writings of the day. "It is one of the few books ever published that created almost immediately on its appearance a political mass movement".〔See Fromm's Foreword to ''Looking Backward'', p. vi.〕 In the United States alone, over 162 "Bellamy Clubs" sprang up to discuss and propagate the book's ideas.〔 Walter James Miller confirms "more than 162 Bellamy Clubs".〕 Owing to its commitment to the nationalization of private property and the desire to avoid use of the odious term "Socialism," this political movement came to be known as "Nationalism" — not to be confused with the political concept of nationalism.〔Edward Bellamy. "What 'Nationalism' Means". ''The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature (1844–1898)''; Vol. 52, No. 3 (September 1890); p. 289.〕 The novel also inspired several utopian communities. ==Publication history== The decades of the 1870s and the 1880s were marked by economic and social turmoil, including the Long Depression of 1873-1879, a series of recessions during the 1880s, the rise of organized labor and strikes, and the 1886 Haymarket affair and its controversial aftermath.〔Sylvia E. Bowman, ''The Year 2000: A Critical Biography of Edward Bellamy.'' New York: Bookman Associates, 1958; pp. 87-89.〕 Moreover, American capitalism's tendency towards concentration into ever larger and less competitive forms — monopolies, oligopolies, and trusts — began to make itself evident, while emigration from Europe expanded the labor pool and caused wages to stagnate.〔 The time was ripe for new ideas about economic development which might ameliorate the current social disorder. Edward Bellamy (1850-1898), a relatively unknown New England-born novelist with a history of concern with social issues,〔Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' pg. 96.〕 began to conceive of writing an impactful work of visionary fiction shaping the outlines of a utopian future, in which production and society were ordered for the smooth production and distribution of commodities to a regimented labor force. In this he was not alone — between 1860 and 1887 no fewer than 11 such works of fiction were produced in the United States by various authors dealing fundamentally with the questions of economic and social organization.〔Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' pg. 107.〕 Bellamy's book, gradually planned throughout the 1880s, was completed in 1887 and taken to Boston publisher Benjamin Ticknor, who published a first edition of the novel in January 1888.〔Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' pg. 115.〕 Initial sales of the book were modest and uninspiring, but the book did find a readership in the Boston area, including enthusiastic reviews by future Bellamyites Cyrus Field Willard of the ''Boston Globe'' and Sylvester Baxter of the ''Boston Herald.'' Shortly after publication, Ticknor's publishing enterprise, Ticknor and Company, was purchased by the larger Boston publisher, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and new publishing plates were created for the book.〔 Certain "slight emendations" were made to the text by Bellamy for this second edition, released by Houghton Mifflin in September 1889.〔Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' pp. 115-116.〕 In its second release, Bellamy's futuristic novel met with enormous popular success, with more than 400,000 copies sold in the United States alone by the time Bellamy's follow-up novel, ''Equality,'' was published in 1897.〔Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' pg. 121.〕 Sales would top 532,000 in the USA by the middle of 1939.〔 The book gained an extensive readership in Great Britain as well, with more than 235,000 copies sold there between the time of its first release in 1890 and 1935.〔 The book remains in print in multiple editions, with one publisher alone having reissued the title in a printing of 100,000 copies in 1945.〔Joseph Schiffman, "Introduction" to Edward Bellamy: ''Selected Writings on Religion and Society.'' New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1955; pg. xxxviii.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Looking Backward」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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