149F Logo
Dr. Andrew Wood
Office: HGH 210; phone: (408) 924-5378
Andrew.Wood@sjsu.edu


Rhetoric of National[ist] Socialism


Looking Backward
"At my feet lay a great city. Miles of broad streets, shaded by trees and lined with fine buildings, for the most part not in continuous blocks but set in larger or smaller enclosures, stretched out in every direction. Every quarter contained large open squares filled with trees, along which statues glistened and fountains flashed in the late-afternoon sun."

- Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward


Overview

We examine nineteenth century rhetorics of modernism and progress, focusing on utopian literature and community building as a social force in European and United States societies. Twin social conflicts form the backdrop of our analysis: (1) the wrenching transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy and (2) the growing sense that excessive individuality must be tempered through science and planning. Toward that end, we discover Edward Bellamy's ideological response to the teeming cities and idiosyncratic visions of the good life that marked his age.

Summary


Andrew Wood's summary of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward

Image Credit


Just One Book [website]