Few books in the annals of American literature have exercised so far-reaching an influence in awakening interest in the social order as has Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward. In its own field it is a classic in the tradition of Plato's Republic, Thomas More's Utopia and William Morris's News from Nowhere. Today, while a new world is in the making and everyone is venturing guesses as to its reorganization, this novel is a visionary's guide to our own future. Its inclusion in the Modern Library series gives new emphasis to the perennial timeliness of Bellamy s masterpiece.