What is the argument in the book 1984?

1984 argues against governments that wield too much power over their citizens. Orwell originally titled the book 1948, after the year it was written, but his publisher changed the title. In 1948, a totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union spied on its citizens and tried to control all aspects of their thinking, and the Nazi government, another totalitarian state that attempted to control thought, had just three years before been defeated. Much of 1984's subject matter, such as children denouncing parents and rewrites of recent history, as well as failed five-year plans, came from real life. But Orwell's main focus was England and his fears of what was happening there, in his own country. The book argues that spying on citizens, government interventions into private life, and dumbing down language, all of which he saw going on, in the end robs humans of their humanity. The book argues that people, to remain fully human, need a strong private space, the chance to think for themselves and form their own opinions and a robust language and accurate record of history to help them support thought. Giving governments too much power works against those goals, he argued.