Brave New World

You can't talk about 1930s literature without mentioning Brave New World. A personal favorite, I recommend this book to everyone whether you're into classic literature, sociology or sci-fi. Written by Aldous Huxley in 1931 and published in 1932, Brave New World is #5 on the 100 best English Language novels of the 20th century. The book is dystopian story set in a the year 2540 under the rule of The World State, a peaceful global society with a fixed population due to the ban of natural reproduction. Instead, children are created in Hatcheries and raised in Conditioning Centers where sleep learning and brainwashing is constantly used. Each fetus (which is not unique but rather the same as 95 others) is divided into five social casts from Alpha to Epsilon depending on the degree of arrested development in intelligence and growth bestowed upon the fetus.

I won't ruin the rest of the book, but it causes us to examine our own society in such a way that asks questions of taken for granted social norms within our society. I highly recommend it and found it to be an easy and highly satisfying read.