Amazon.com description: Product Description: Utopian/Dystopian Alternative History Classic! Set in a grim 20th Century future - the story of how a brutal oligarchy seizes power in 1914 United States; as told by the wife of Congressman Ernest Everhard; and a running commentary in the footnotes from the perspective of a post-capitalist civilization. This is one book where it pays to read the footnotes, which are set hundreds of years in the future; as well as tying up loose ends, they have to explain such obsolete concepts as private property, factory whistles, and prize fighting. Real persons including Upton Sinclair and W.R. Hearst appear and are intertwined with a cast of memorable fictional characters - rivaling Orwell's 1984 for literary and historical significance. London predicted an attack on Pearl Harbor as a capitalist ruse to start a world war. One of the best Dystopian stories ever written - powerful, thought provoking and profound! Like 1984, descriptions of life in this world are sadly similar to reality today.