diff --git a/pyactiveresource/connection.py b/pyactiveresource/connection.py
index 5515b48..81010bc 100644
--- a/pyactiveresource/connection.py
+++ b/pyactiveresource/connection.py
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@
 import socket
 import sys
 import six
-from six.moves import urllib
+import backoff
+from six.moves import urllib, http_client
 from pyactiveresource import formats
 
 
@@ -317,6 +318,7 @@ def _urlopen(self, request):
         else:
           return urllib.request.urlopen(request)
 
+    @backoff.on_exception(backoff.expo, (ServerError, http_client.IncompleteRead))
     def get(self, path, headers=None):
         """Perform an HTTP get request.
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e8640c1..56c6931 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
       test_suite='test',
       install_requires=[
           'six',
+          'backoff'
       ],
       tests_require=[
           python_dateutils_version,