The Millenium

Introduction by Carl Jensen

In 1907, Upton Sinclair looked forward 93 years and imagined the year 2000 when capitalism would find its zenith with the construction of The Pleasure Palace, a glittering half-mile-high structure in the middle of Central Park. During the grand opening of the towering building, a scientific experiment with radiumite explodes, killing everybody throughout the world except eleven of the people at the Pleasure Palace. They escape the deadly rays by flying high in the sky in a revolutionary 1000-mph airplane called "The Monarch of the Air!" The fortunate eleven survivors struggle to rebuild their lives by creating a capitalistic society. After that fails, along with several other inept efforts, they create a successful utopian society on the lush grounds of a grand country estate in the Pocantico Hills above the Hudson River. In The Millenium: A Comedy of the Year 2000, Sinclair's life-long vision, "The Cooperative Commonwealth," reigns happily forever after.

UPTON SINCLAIR was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 20, 1878, and died near Bound Brook, New Jersey, on September 20, 1968. His novel The Jungle (1906) led to the clean up of nation's meat supply industry, and to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration; another, The Brass Check, paved the way for the Newspaper Guild; Boston influenced America's perception of the Saccho-Vanzetti case; OIL! opened America's eyes to avaricious corporate oil swindlers; Dragon's Teeth brought him the Pulitzer Prize for Literature; and his eleven-volume Lanny Budd series became an internationally popular history of the world from 1911 to 1950. Sinclair was a true Renaissance man and a fearless crusader for social justice.