He learns that Edith and her mother do not normally wear the long skirts he has seen them in (they had been wearing them so as not to offend his 19th century sensibilities): when Julian tells Edith that he would not be shocked to see them dressed in the modern fashion, Edith immediately runs into the house and comes out dressed in a pants suit. West's citizenship in the new America is recognized, and he goes to the bank to obtain his own account, or 'credit card,' from which he can draw his equal share of the national product. West tells his nightmare of return to the 19th century to Edith, who is sympathetic. The story takes up immediately after the events of Looking Backward with the main characters from the first novel, Julian West, Doctor Leete, and his daughter Edith. The text is now in the public domain and available for free. The book contains a minimal amount of plot Bellamy primarily used Equality to expand on the theories he first explored in Looking Backward.

At one point, there was even a Bellamy Party in the Netherlands.Equality is a utopian novel by Edward Bellamy, and the sequel to Looking Backward: 2000–1887. It inspired a less successful sequel entitled Equality that was more of a political tract than a novel and generally spurred socialist movement both in the United States and abroad. When it was first published in 1888, its success was behind that of only Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. His novel Looking Backward is a widely regarded work of socialist Utopian fiction and was referenced in many Marxist publications of the time. Edward Bellamy was an acclaimed American author and Christian socialist.

At one point, there was even a Bellamy Party in the Netherlands.

Edward bellamy books