"Cæsar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century" by Ignatius Donnelly is a novel published in 1890. Set in 1988 New York, it follows a wool merchant from Uganda who encounters a brutal capitalist oligarchy where technological marvels mask extreme oppression. When he witnesses a confrontation between rich and poor, he's drawn into an underground resistance movement. The story blends dystopian speculation with political commentary and romance, building toward a violent rebellion that threatens to consume the entire city in flames. (This is an automatically generated summary.)