Seventy-five years ago, in August 1946, George Orwell’s Animal Farm was published in the United States. It was a huge success, with over a half-million copies sold in its first year. Animal Farm was followed three years later by an even bigger success: Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
In the years since, Orwell’s writing has left an indelible mark on American thought and culture. Sales of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four jumped in 2013 after the whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked confidential National Security Agency documents. And Nineteen Eighty-Four rose to the top of Amazon’s best-sellers list after Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration in 2017.
As a philosophy professor, I am interested in the continuing relevance of Orwell’s ideas, including those on totalitarianism and socialism.
Early career
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair. Born in 1903 in colonial India, Blair later moved to England, where he attended elite schools on…