The World a Department Store
Encyclopedia
The World a Department Store: A Story of Life Under a Coöperative System is a utopian novel
written by Bradford C. Peck, and published by him in 1900
. The book was one entrant in the wave of utopian and dystopian writing that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moreover, Peck's book was one of the minority of utopian works of the time that was linked to an effort at practical application of its ideas.
who nonetheless advocated views that were, to some degree, anti-capitalist and pro-socialist. Peck followed the Horatio Alger pattern in American life, rising from want to commercial success; a native of Lewiston, Maine
, he built the largest department store in the state in its time. In reaction to the chaotic business conditions of the Panic of 1893
, Peck began to develop a commitment to the emerging cooperative
movement.
Peck formed a local co-operative association in 1899, and soon promoted it into the "Coöperative Association of America." His goal was to link producers with consumers as directly as possible, eliminating all expenses of "middle-men", bankers and interest payments, and advertising costs, and so creating a far more efficient and economical business model than the one dominant in America in his generation. The Association established a co-op grocery and restaurant, and opened a reading room; Peck later transferred the ownership of his department store to the Association so that its profits would support the cause.
Peck organized conventions and other activities to promote the co-operative movement. The Association tried to form a co-operative community in Oregon in 1906, but without success. The Lewiston co-op shut down in 1912, when the C.A.A. lost its lease on its headquarters. Peck, however, remained a vigorous advocate of his views until his death at age 82. He also wrote The World a Department Store, his only novel, to promote his vision. The book sold for $1.00 per copy; royalties went to the Association. (A British edition was issued by the publisher Gay & Bird, also in 1900.)
and his famous novel Looking Backward
(1888); he was also influenced by Henry George
's Progress and Poverty
(1879) and Charles Sheldon
's In His Steps
(1896). When Peck published his novel, it "caught the imagination of some socialists in the same way as Bellamy's works had."
Brantford had been a successful businessman of the late nineteenth century — though like many men of that type he suffered from the intense stresses, anxieties, and uncertainties of the commercial world. He used a sleeping potion to combat his insomnia. On the night of December 31, 1899 (in popular reckoning, the last day of the century), Brantford took a double dose of his sleeping powder; he lapsed into a coma and slept for 25 years. The young people read the news story that recounts Brantford's sudden awakening in a local nursing home.
The committee that runs the City appoints Childs and Wilkinson to be Brantford's guides in his adjustment to the new social and economic reality. Brantford is amazed to learn that the co-operative movement has transformed the Lewiston he knew into Coöperative City, which is run on a vastly different and improved system. Most of the book is devoted to explanations of the workings of the Coǒperative Association of America, and how it has come to dominate the former Lewiston and spread to New York City, Chicago, and other major cities. Wilkinson and Childs detail all major aspects of the new system, to Brantford's wondering admiration. The new system has eliminated poverty, tenements, slums, litter, and other evil aspects of the old economy.
Some of the details of Peck's plan are effective forecasts of later developments. The members of the C.A.A. use "coupon checks" instead of the "old-style microbe-breeding currency." Photo IDs are used. Both men and women pursue physical fitness, and work out in gymnasiums. The public school system monitors the schoolchildren's nutritional needs.
Brantford, for his part, reminisces about the bad old days of Gilded-Age capitalism; he recalls a system so irrational and rapacious that every man in business necessarily had a "dishonest career...." He recalls brokers on the stock exchanges as "a lot of maniacs, running wild...," and makes similar remarks on the conditions of the earlier age.
The plot retains at least a vestigial human-interest story line. The young people have a neighbor named Helen Brown; she and Percy Brantford develop a romance, and in the end the three couples join in a triple wedding.
Throughout his book, Peck stresses that the new economic and social system has moral and ethical and even religious implications. The regime of Coöperative City and the C.A.A. empowers a "true coöperative Christian existence" instead of frustrating people's normal drives to neighborliness and virtue. Through co-operation, humanity has formed itself "into a practical Christian organization...." The book begins with a Preface and Prospectus written by a clergyman; Peck closes his novel with a chapter on the religious, ethical, and social implications of his plan.
As a result, Peck's novel has been termed a Social Gospel
book.
Beyond the verbal expression, Peck's esthetic is shaped by his professional experience: his future is clean and polished, well-organized and brightly displayed. His world is very much like a department store.
(1894) was similarly well-illustrated. Wilkinson's pictures show outside views and floor plans of the buildings lavishly described by Peck, as well as street plans of the city's neighborhoods, and a "coupon check" book.
Utopian and dystopian fiction
The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, or dystopia...
written by Bradford C. Peck, and published by him in 1900
1900 in literature
The year 1900 in literature involved some significant new books and publications, as well as the deaths of several highly prominent writers, including among them the late Irish poet Oscar Wilde and the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche....
. The book was one entrant in the wave of utopian and dystopian writing that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moreover, Peck's book was one of the minority of utopian works of the time that was linked to an effort at practical application of its ideas.
The Cooperative
Bradford Peck (1853–1935) has been compared to King Gillette as a successful businessman of the Gilded AgeGilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
who nonetheless advocated views that were, to some degree, anti-capitalist and pro-socialist. Peck followed the Horatio Alger pattern in American life, rising from want to commercial success; a native of Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
, he built the largest department store in the state in its time. In reaction to the chaotic business conditions of the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
, Peck began to develop a commitment to the emerging cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
movement.
Peck formed a local co-operative association in 1899, and soon promoted it into the "Coöperative Association of America." His goal was to link producers with consumers as directly as possible, eliminating all expenses of "middle-men", bankers and interest payments, and advertising costs, and so creating a far more efficient and economical business model than the one dominant in America in his generation. The Association established a co-op grocery and restaurant, and opened a reading room; Peck later transferred the ownership of his department store to the Association so that its profits would support the cause.
Peck organized conventions and other activities to promote the co-operative movement. The Association tried to form a co-operative community in Oregon in 1906, but without success. The Lewiston co-op shut down in 1912, when the C.A.A. lost its lease on its headquarters. Peck, however, remained a vigorous advocate of his views until his death at age 82. He also wrote The World a Department Store, his only novel, to promote his vision. The book sold for $1.00 per copy; royalties went to the Association. (A British edition was issued by the publisher Gay & Bird, also in 1900.)
Influences
By his own admission, Peck was an admirer of Edward BellamyEdward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...
and his famous novel Looking Backward
Looking Backward
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from western Massachusetts; it was first published in 1887...
(1888); he was also influenced by Henry George
Henry George
Henry George was an American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "single tax" on land...
's Progress and Poverty
Progress and Poverty
Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy was written by Henry George in 1879...
(1879) and Charles Sheldon
Charles Sheldon
Charles Monroe Sheldon was an American minister in the Congregational churches and leader of the Social Gospel movement...
's In His Steps
In His Steps
In His Steps is a best-selling book written by Charles Monroe Sheldon. First published in 1897, the book has sold more than 30,000,000 copies, and ranks as the 9th best-selling book of all time, along with Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls...
(1896). When Peck published his novel, it "caught the imagination of some socialists in the same way as Bellamy's works had."
The book
The plot of the novel begins on April 7, 1925. The opening chapters introduce two young men, George Wilkinson and Harry Childs, and their girlfriends, Mabel Clay and Alice Furbush. The young men are roommates, as are the young women; they all work for various functions of Coöperative City. They are struck and fascinated by the story of Percy Brantford, which they read in that morning's newspaper.Brantford had been a successful businessman of the late nineteenth century — though like many men of that type he suffered from the intense stresses, anxieties, and uncertainties of the commercial world. He used a sleeping potion to combat his insomnia. On the night of December 31, 1899 (in popular reckoning, the last day of the century), Brantford took a double dose of his sleeping powder; he lapsed into a coma and slept for 25 years. The young people read the news story that recounts Brantford's sudden awakening in a local nursing home.
The committee that runs the City appoints Childs and Wilkinson to be Brantford's guides in his adjustment to the new social and economic reality. Brantford is amazed to learn that the co-operative movement has transformed the Lewiston he knew into Coöperative City, which is run on a vastly different and improved system. Most of the book is devoted to explanations of the workings of the Coǒperative Association of America, and how it has come to dominate the former Lewiston and spread to New York City, Chicago, and other major cities. Wilkinson and Childs detail all major aspects of the new system, to Brantford's wondering admiration. The new system has eliminated poverty, tenements, slums, litter, and other evil aspects of the old economy.
Some of the details of Peck's plan are effective forecasts of later developments. The members of the C.A.A. use "coupon checks" instead of the "old-style microbe-breeding currency." Photo IDs are used. Both men and women pursue physical fitness, and work out in gymnasiums. The public school system monitors the schoolchildren's nutritional needs.
Brantford, for his part, reminisces about the bad old days of Gilded-Age capitalism; he recalls a system so irrational and rapacious that every man in business necessarily had a "dishonest career...." He recalls brokers on the stock exchanges as "a lot of maniacs, running wild...," and makes similar remarks on the conditions of the earlier age.
The plot retains at least a vestigial human-interest story line. The young people have a neighbor named Helen Brown; she and Percy Brantford develop a romance, and in the end the three couples join in a triple wedding.
Throughout his book, Peck stresses that the new economic and social system has moral and ethical and even religious implications. The regime of Coöperative City and the C.A.A. empowers a "true coöperative Christian existence" instead of frustrating people's normal drives to neighborliness and virtue. Through co-operation, humanity has formed itself "into a practical Christian organization...." The book begins with a Preface and Prospectus written by a clergyman; Peck closes his novel with a chapter on the religious, ethical, and social implications of his plan.
As a result, Peck's novel has been termed a Social Gospel
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
book.
Style
Peck was not an experienced writer, and made no pretensions to literary quality in his work; his book has been criticized for its "inept and pretentious style." He wrote in the manner of popular magazines, travelogues, and advertising copy; Coöperative City is "the most beautiful city in all the world," and its buildings and features are described as "delightful," "elegant," "heavenly," and "magnificent." As Brantford progresses through his tour of the city, his comments are along the lines of "Wonderful, wonderful! and what marvelous changes from my former life!" In describing a private home, Peck writes, "Our readers, no doubt, will feel interested to know something of the character and style of this beautiful home....Here was to be found every convenience and luxury known to those living in the last century."Beyond the verbal expression, Peck's esthetic is shaped by his professional experience: his future is clean and polished, well-organized and brightly displayed. His world is very much like a department store.
The illustrations
Peck's book was furnished with multiple illustrations by Harry C. Wilkinson. This sets it apart from most utopian works of the era, though King Gillette's The Human DriftThe Human Drift
The Human Drift is a work of Utopian social planning, written by King Camp Gillette and first published in 1894. The book details Gillette's plans for social and technological advancements that would replace the chaos of contemporary existence, which he termed the "human drift," with steady and...
(1894) was similarly well-illustrated. Wilkinson's pictures show outside views and floor plans of the buildings lavishly described by Peck, as well as street plans of the city's neighborhoods, and a "coupon check" book.