The Consolation of Utopia

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, mortgage foreclosures, bankruptcies, recessions, monopolies, monetary policy, and the concentration of vast wealth in the hands of a small but powerful plutocracy were perennial topics of debate as the nation witnessed the implacable onslaught of industrialization. The social injustices of the times engendered a plethora of utopian novels attempting to point the way from turmoil to enlightenment. Among the most influential were the writings of Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward: 2000-1887) and Ignatius Donnelly (Caesar’s Column and The Golden Bottle). Mann’s study places the utopian vision of each of these works in the context of those seemingly distant – yet all too familiar – times. The novels of Bellamy and Donnelly are the forerunners of a long line of dystopian fiction beginning with H.G. Wells’ Time Machine and continuing through Zamyatin’s We and Orwell’s 1984.