Looking Backward 2000-1887

What strikes readers most about Edward Bellamy’s classic science fiction novel are the prognostications the author makes for the future. Looking Backward: 2000-1887 was published in 1888, and has stayed on the pop culture landscape for over 100 years, thanks in no small part to its imagining of debit cards (called credit cards in the book) and instantaneous delivery of goods, not unlike the concept behind Amazon’s still developing same-day service. Looking Backward caused quite a sensation in its own time, too, drawing a mix of positive and negative responses by dozens of contemporary writers.