George Orwell's 1949 novel — set in a totalitarian future where Big Brother surveils everything, language is controlled through Newspeak, and history is constantly rewritten — the most influential political novel in English and the primary reference point for totalitarianism.
Creates the vocabulary of totalitarianism — 1984's concepts (Big Brother, doublethink, Newspeak, thoughtcrime, the Memory Hole, Room 101, the Two Minutes Hate) provide the complete vocabulary for describing total state control; its enduring relevance is that each generation finds fresh applications for its concepts.
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