"The most wonderful book, of the class which attempts a forecast of the future of civilization, is the one entitled 'Caesar's Column.'" -The Literary Digest "In the year 1889, following a humiliating defeat for the United States senatorship, he began work on a book which reflected his pessimism. Donnelly had a way of identifying his own political fortunes with the success or failure of reform, and from this point of view it seemed evident that the cause of reform had little chance of success. The result of Donnelly's meditations was the publication in June, 1890, of a novel entitled 'Caesar's Column,' in which the author maintained that if the present state of things continued for another hundred years it would end in the destruction of civilization as well as liberty the whole world over. 'Caesar's Column' was Donnelly's most popular work, and sold by the hundreds of thousands of copies.Some said that it imitated Bellamy's 'Looking Backward,' but it was really quite the reverse. Bellamy dreamed of an ideal state of society where all wrongs should be righted; Donnelly looked forward to something closely akin to the current conception of bolshevism. He foresaw a time when the lower classes, stung by their increasing wrongs, would join together in a great 'Brotherhood of Destruction,' including millions of members the world over, whose efforts would finally culminate in the annihilation of society itself.

The book, to escape unmerited criticism, was published under an assumed name and was not for some time attributed to Donnelly. Its phenomenal success is evidence of the profound unrest of the times from which the populist movement took root and grew. Donnellly, it should be said, did not preach violence; on the contrary, he taught that all necessary reforms should be made to escape violence. But he did believe that unless the wrongs of the masses were righted a social cataclysm would result." -Journal of American History "I have found that the leaders are not real workingmen, but labor politicians who hope by destroying the government of the United States of America, to create for themselves such a political despotism of the untrained mob spirit as was outlined in the blood-curdling novel of prophecy written by Ignatius Donnelly many years ago, called 'Caesar's Column.'" -Labor Digest.