1984

About the book

In 1948, George Orwell envisioned a future where the Party exercises total dominion over the fictional superstate Oceania. The protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth, where he alters historical records to align with the ever-changing propaganda of the leader, Big Brother. In a world defined by Thought Police and the invasive surveillance of screens that never turn off, Winston initiates a private rebellion through a secret diary and an illicit romance with a colleague named Julia. His defiance eventually results in his arrest and systematic psychological destruction within the Ministry of Love.

Political theorists and readers interested in the mechanics of authoritarianism study this text to understand how language and surveillance serve as tools of state control. It provides a specific vocabulary for describing government overreach, including modern concepts of newspeak and doublethink. The reader leaves with a detailed framework for identifying how regimes manipulate objective facts to maintain power over individual reality. This edition from New American Library offers a foundational landscape of the dystopian genre, focusing on the complete erasure of privacy and personal history.

Details

Published

1948

Publisher

New American Library

ISBN

9781411403246

Language

EN