The Iron Heel

May 03, 2009

Bird Brian rated it

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Shelves: dystopias

Jack London is better known for adventure stories from the Alaskan goldrush (White Fang, Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire), but this work proves his powers of political observation and insight. First published in 1907, the entire work is littered with astonishingly accurate foreshadowings and predictions, including: a second Russian Revolution (the first one occurring in 1905), a World War 1-like conflict with Germany, the rise of Japanese "daibutsu" and militarism, and a dialectic of...more

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Dec 14, 2008

Cwn_annwn_13 rated it

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Shelves: on-my-shelf-home-library

In the Iron Heel London lays out something right in step with reality, past present and almost certainly the future. Jack London was a guy that had hobnobbed and interacted with the well to do (he was even a member of Bohemian Grove) but he had also seen the hard side of life, working on fishing boats and in various brutal exploitive labor jobs, doing time in jail, etc. So he had an insight that not many people have.

In this work he really lays out through fictional characters how ma...moreIn the Iron Heel London lays out something right in step with reality, past present and almost certainly the future. Jack London was a guy that had hobnobbed and interacted with the well to do (he was even a member of Bohemian Grove) but he had also seen the hard side of life, working on fishing boats and in various brutal exploitive labor jobs, doing time in jail, etc. So he had an insight that not many people have.

In this work he really lays out through fictional characters how many segments of society that claim to represent the downtrodden are bought and owned by the exploitive "oligarchs", especially the Christian church, the fantasy world of academia, and the crooked labor unions who often sell out the workers. Also your hypocritical well to do armchair liberals who like to pat themselves on the back for any charitable deed, but also (often unwittingly) have blood on their hands and almost always embrace and support the system when they feel their comfortable lifestyle may be threatened or they may have to make a stand.

He also shows how the big Capitalists destroy small and mid level business operators, how they run smear campaigns through the media against anybody within the system that speaks out against them, and the out and out brutality that they use against people that resist them. Its pretty easy to find multitudes of real examples of all these things, whether 100 years ago or in the here and now.

As far as how the revolutionary struggle is portrayed in The Iron Heel there are elements to it that I could see going down if a underground movement to topple the current oligarchs ever occured but there are also elements that I couldn't see working or even happening in a million years. Besides that at this point in time I don't think there are enough people out there with the fighting spirit or intelligence to see how they are being screwed over by the system for any mass movement of resistance. Just so long as people can stuff their face with junk food, watch tv, play video games, take mind control drugs like prozac, etc, the new world order doesn't have much to worry about.

One thing London doesn't do well in The Iron Heel is differentiate between the Oligarch controlled Orwellian branch of international socialism and national, localized or dare I say it, racial socialism, which the later three were much more what London was in tune to, not the globalist type of Fabian Socialism that people like H.G Wells promoted. (less)

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Dec 08, 2011

Garrick Underhill rated it

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Shelves: to-never-read-again-unless-forced-t

My respect for London has just been destroyed, the hammers of his long, boring, and inaccurate arguments slowly beat his glorified reputation in my eyes to nothing more that Sadaam Hussein's Babylon.

Basically,this book is London's attempt to convert you to his Socialist viewpoint, with something about a revolution and an awful, horribly half-baked love story. I'd finished this book about two days ago, and all I remember are the long, drawn out, "arguments", that as anyone ...moreMy respect for London has just been destroyed, the hammers of his long, boring, and inaccurate arguments slowly beat his glorified reputation in my eyes to nothing more that Sadaam Hussein's Babylon.

Basically,this book is London's attempt to convert you to his Socialist viewpoint, with something about a revolution and an awful, horribly half-baked love story. I'd finished this book about two days ago, and all I remember are the long, drawn out, "arguments", that as anyone who has read this book know, consume much of the entire first half. These arguments should not really be termed as arguments, for no character is permitted to question, or even say more than ten words to dispute London's puppet (Ernest Everhard)from espousing Socialist propaganda and denouncing capitalism as a cruel, unjust system that is wholly illogical.

The biggest problem I've had with this book is that its argument against capitalism is FLAWED. In Ernest Everhard's interminable arguments, he throws away his point in the first paragraph by assuming that everything will always stay the same, everywehere, forever. Everything will be exactly as it was in 1905 as it will be in 2025. Same business, no new inventions. That is essentially the framework London needs in which to prove capitalism is illogical.
For example, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of buggy manufacturers. Then Mercedes and Benz figure out the car, and all the buggy manufacturers either realize they're screwed and give up, or decide to start making cars. Then people buy cars, buggy manufacturers go iut of business, and their is no "unconsumable surplus."

Another thing London assumes is that no one is capable of saving money. With his shoe factory example, London posits that with their wages, the factory workers can only buy back 50% of what they made. And the reader asks, what if the workers don't need shoes? What if they start saving for, say, a new coat? or their next rent payment? Maybe they'll invest their money in a new business. But in order for london's numerous scenarios to work, people must ALWAYS spend 100% of their wages.

But most importantly, this is not one of London's best works, a fact on which most must agree. Of the books penned by London I have read, this has got to be the worst. It simply was not, in my opinion, well written, especially the bits where he lets Avis Everhard narrate.

So, from this review I draw one conclusion about the author we've come to love for his action stories and descriptive power: He should've stuck to the Yukon.(less)

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Apr 14, 2011

A.J. Howard rated it

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Shelves: 1001-books, 1900s, bookshelf-fiction, finished-in-2011

The Iron Heel is said to have been a great influence on later dystopian fiction, but London's book is completely lacking the subtlety and skill of Orwell, Huxley, or Burgess. Where the latter authors tell carefully crafted fables, London relies on heavy handed, exhausting, and apparently plagiarized polemics. Although they are almost ideological antonyms, this book is much more akin to Rand's Atlas Shrugged than Orwell's 1984. At least Rand's tome managed to engage the reader before embarking on...moreThe Iron Heel is said to have been a great influence on later dystopian fiction, but London's book is completely lacking the subtlety and skill of Orwell, Huxley, or Burgess. Where the latter authors tell carefully crafted fables, London relies on heavy handed, exhausting, and apparently plagiarized polemics. Although they are almost ideological antonyms, this book is much more akin to Rand's Atlas Shrugged than Orwell's 1984. At least Rand's tome managed to engage the reader before embarking on endless and monotone pontifications. London doesn't bother here. The first hundred pages of this novels are exclusively avenues for London's sermonizing. London also writes about his hero in the same rapturous, heavy breathed way that Rand does, like a thirteen year old girl writing bad Twilight fan fiction.

The Iron Heel is structured as a manuscript written by a soon to be martyred heroine about her recently martyred husband. The 'manuscript' describes events taking place between 1912 and 1932 and is annotated by an editor writing several hundred years in the future. This whole premise is laid out in an introduction by the 'editor,' introducing the reader to a brutal oligarchy which came to power during the events of the book and had been only recently overthrown by a Socialist Brotherhood. I give London credit for creating an innovative and intriguing structure that gives the book a sense of momentum from the start. Unfortunately, London proceeds to squander this momentum by boring the bejesus out of the reader with several polemics. The first one serves to introduce the reader to London's hero, his views, the issues of the day, etc. But then London has his character deliver another one, and another one, and another one. It would be one thing if these speeches and dialogues were compelling or well-crafted. They are not. Instead, they are tedious, unvaried and repetitive. Interspersed with this are 'annotations' provided by the editor of the future, which manage to be both obnoxious and cringe-worthy.

Now, I must be honest. I did not finish this book. I was intrigued by the introduction, but was beginning to be wary by the first chapters. I read several more chapters and quickly found myself ringing the one star alarm. I decided to give it another try the next day, but today my reaction was no better. I read around half of this thing and I was dreading the second half. Looking at the wikipedia summary, apparently London becomes less devoted to speechifying and starts to describe the onset of the oligarchy, the "Iron Heel." The wiki page provides a timeline, and there appears to be quite a bit of actions. But I read half of this thing, and there was absolutely no plot movement. The half I read convinced me that I wasn't missing much by skipping the second half and reading a wikipedia summary. London is hardly a great writer of prose, and I hardly trust him to instill a sense of nuance into his plot. What I expect follows is a dry, heavy handed, and dull recitation of events. I should be clear that I don't hate this book for London's politics.This is the first book since Atlas Shrugged that I've abandoned permanently before completing, but I feel no shame in doing so. The Iron Heel may be an influential work, but it is better remembered for being influential than for its own merits. On it's own merits, it can only be considered a poorly-written piece of polemical propaganda. (less)

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Feb 15, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it

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This book illustrates that just because you like some of a writers work it doesn't mean you'll like it all.

What we have here is an attempt at selling an ideology inside a sort of doomed romance story...and take that as I wrote it. Not only is the romance doomed, so is the story. Any story in this volume (which I skimmed as an attempt to read London's tortured attempt to make universal socialism logical is painful at best) Any story in this book (and there isn't much) is completely o...moreThis book illustrates that just because you like some of a writers work it doesn't mean you'll like it all.

What we have here is an attempt at selling an ideology inside a sort of doomed romance story...and take that as I wrote it. Not only is the romance doomed, so is the story. Any story in this volume (which I skimmed as an attempt to read London's tortured attempt to make universal socialism logical is painful at best) Any story in this book (and there isn't much) is completely overwhelmed by London's preachy attempt to sell us on Marxist style socialism. He sees it as a noble struggle that will be attacked by the (by now familiar) evil capitalist industrial complex. Oddly in truth, socialism has come so far that it could be argued that shoes are on exactly the opposite feet than those London (and of course others picture).

It never fails to amaze me when people use the freedoms guaranteed by our form of government to espouse a form of government that would deny them that freedom. London, a writer of the outdoors and wildlife was an outspoken socialist. A lot of it had to do with some of the failings in his own life though while he was trying to run a 1,000 acre ranch where he built an $80,000 mansion, it was destroyed by fire before he could move in.

This book is (in my opinion) London's poorest work and is purely an attempt at political propaganda. It is I suppose from it's point of view a science fiction or fantasy as it's fictional pre-history...for us it sort of alternate history though it's supposed top be from the point of view of around 2600 AD (or 419 BOM, Brotherhood Of Man). The attempt at Avis's and Ernest's love story is a failure and in my case never touched my interest.

Look, I don't care for the book, if you do that's fine. I suspect that those who do like it will because it espouses a point of view they like and want to see espoused, not because of it's story or the writing. London is capable of fine writing and I like some of his work. This book however puts me in mind of one of my favorite quotes: "A Communist is someone who has read Marx...an Anti-communist is someone who understands Marx."

Sadly one star.
(less)

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Jan 08, 2011

Brian rated it

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It is not difficult to imagine why this work does not share the same recognition as White Fang or The Call of the Wild. London, through the character of Ernest Everhard, makes no apologies for his relentlessly honest assessment of contemporary capitalism and the society it is producing. In the story, the "Iron Heel" of the title is a title commonly applied to the capitalist "Oligarchy" that rises out of the numerous contradictions in capitalist society that were so starkly vi...moreIt is not difficult to imagine why this work does not share the same recognition as White Fang or The Call of the Wild. London, through the character of Ernest Everhard, makes no apologies for his relentlessly honest assessment of contemporary capitalism and the society it is producing. In the story, the "Iron Heel" of the title is a title commonly applied to the capitalist "Oligarchy" that rises out of the numerous contradictions in capitalist society that were so starkly visible in the early twentieth-century---and, in a number of instances, appear to have once again resurfaced in the twenty-first. London tells the story of a socialist uprising that is ultimately crushed by the fearsome Iron Heel from the vantage point of Avis Everhard, a revolutionist recruited from the intelligentsia by her husband and lover, Ernest Everhard. Through a creative literary device, London frames the narrative as an ancient manuscript, discovered sometime in the twenty-seventh century---four centuries after a global revolution has brought the world together in a universal "Brotherhood of Man"---and the footnotes inserted by these twenty-seventh-century scholars allow London to reinforce the message of his narrative with actual events and add a number of frequently humorous commentaries on capitalist society.

Many have described The Iron Heel as a prescient account of the rise of fascism, and the narrative does indeed foretell many of its features. Fascism's demise in the Second World War, however, has done little to precludes the contemporary rise of an "Oligarchy" similar to that described in London's story, particularly under the world's current circumstances. While it certainly has not taken the form of the feared and ruthless "Iron Heel," many of the world's prison inmates, poor and working poor, immigrants, and "suspected terrorists," could identify a number of common features in the "Iron Heel" and the contemporary "security state." Just as the fictional revolution in London's narrative takes four centuries to reach fruition, so to may its real-world counterpart still be long in coming. That some form of revolt will eventually arise, however, is a virtual certainty.(less)

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Oct 25, 2010

Neil Crossan rated it

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Imagine a revolutionary figure in the future. Imagine his sudden execution by the government. Imagine his wife running off to a place where she can write the story of her brave husband. But before she can finish the government has tracked her down. She hides the book in a tree and flees for her life. It’s 400 years later and the book has been found, but by now the government is benevolent and the book is published under the title The Iron Heel, with notes by historians correcting & adding to the...more

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Nov 23, 2009

B-MO rated it

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Recommends it for: Wow....

Shelves: culture-and-politics, favorite-stuff, fiction, political-stuff, utopia-s-dystopia-s

Wow...

Wow....

OK, ok....First off...this is not your regular Jack London stuff, hell I didn't even know he was a socialist till reading this.

This is a dystopian novel, an odd book, supposedly a manuscript dug up around the year 2700, this manuscript chronicles events that take place in the early 20th century as capitalism develops into a sort of oligarchy.

The reader is given footnotes by a historian from 2700 who is trying to explain the strangene...moreWow...

Wow....

OK, ok....First off...this is not your regular Jack London stuff, hell I didn't even know he was a socialist till reading this.

This is a dystopian novel, an odd book, supposedly a manuscript dug up around the year 2700, this manuscript chronicles events that take place in the early 20th century as capitalism develops into a sort of oligarchy.

The reader is given footnotes by a historian from 2700 who is trying to explain the strangeness of some of our history to his contemporaries living in an enlightened socialist world. The dialog looks similar to that of people today who would look back at the brutality of the past for what it was, i.e. how most people of today speak about Slavery and are even somewhat confused by the possibility of its former existence.

What I found most striking in this novel were the predictions which London makes about the future of America (and the world) under capitalism. Being written in 1905 he predicts the creation of the FBI, WW1, J Edgar Hoover, Big labor sellouts, and the creation of early socialist states that would not be able to survive and would be forced to revert to capitalism, despite their eventual turning back to socialism with the rest of the world. (ok, so this last part might not have happened yet, but that doesn't mean that it wont, VIVA REVOLUTION)...

One thing he didn't predict (no one is timeless) was the woman's liberation movement....sure he gives woman more important skills then many authors of the time, the 'author' is even a lady, but she is writing about her husband the 'actor', the leader...

So this makes me want to go back and investigate some of Jack London's other work. I just found a quote here on goodreads that is very similar to my favorite Kerouac quote (roman candles exploding quote)...makes me wonder about London's influence on Kerouac...

London's Quote---->"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Kerouacs Quote ---->"yes, the only people for me, too are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."(less)

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Mar 15, 2011

Jason rated it

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Shelves: reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 05, 2011

wally rated it

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Shelves: london

"at first, this earth, a stage so gloomed with woe you almost sicken at the shifting of the scenes. and yet be patient. our playwright may show in some fifth act what this wild drama means."

contents
forward
1 my eagle
2 challenges
3 johnson's arm
4 slaves of the machine
5 the philomaths
6 adumbrations
7 the bishop's vision
8 the machine breakers
9 the mathematics of a dream
10 the vortex
11 the great adventure
12 the bishop
...more

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Jan 01, 2011

Jon-Erik rated it

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Shelves: fiction, philosophy

George Orwell commented that the prophecies of this book turned out to be more true than either The Shape of Things To Come or Brave New World. He was correct. It was also more prophetic than 1984. In the end, 1984 is a reduction of philosophical ideas into a manual of power. Even if Oceania never exists, it will always be, like a Platonic idea, out there as a model for a way to run the world.

The Iron Heel, on the other hand, could almost have been written in 2007 instead of 1907.
...more

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Jan 13, 2012

Sarah rated it

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The Iron Heel is considered a dystopian novel, and it was written in 1908 by Jack London. I generally enjoy dystopian stories, and I did enjoy the majority of this book as well. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this book a seven.

*possible spoilers*

This book is mostly presented as a historical document, a manuscript by Avis Everhard, a socially elite woman who falls in love with a Socialist revolutionary, and with Socialism itself. The book tells the story of the eros...moreThe Iron Heel is considered a dystopian novel, and it was written in 1908 by Jack London. I generally enjoy dystopian stories, and I did enjoy the majority of this book as well. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this book a seven.

*possible spoilers*

This book is mostly presented as a historical document, a manuscript by Avis Everhard, a socially elite woman who falls in love with a Socialist revolutionary, and with Socialism itself. The book tells the story of the erosion of Capitalism as an inevitability around the world, the rise of Oligarchy to replace it, and the struggle of the proletariat to rise to power in Socialism. The manuscript is annotated by historians much later in history (roughly 2600 AD, also noted as an entirely different year in an era known as the Brotherhood of Man).

I found myself devouring the first half or 60% of this book. I was completely dumbfounded at how eerily similar the story felt to politics of the last few years. The book was written in 1908, yet it talks about the crumble of Capitalism as growing wealth disparity, the failure of world Stock Markets and Banks, globalization of goods distribution and labor, people's uprisings around the world, et cetera. It made the book astonishing to read as a dystopian story, because any good dystopian story portrays a view of an unfavorable, but plausible outcome of society. It was amazing how much it felt like reading a summary of 2011.

The manuscript in the story is written mostly in first person, by Avis, but she speaks mostly about her husband Ernest. As the book progresses, and the arc of the story relates less to our modern times and more toward the possible future outcome, Ernest is not so much in the story and we learn more about how Avis remains safe and hidden during the rumblings of revolution in America. At this point, my interest started to wane slightly. Avis writing about herself and the outcome of each person she had ever known seemed to be a lot more tedious than Avis writing spectacular, adoring stories about her husband. Maybe I'm just not a fan of first-person writing, or perhaps the character of Avis isn't as compelling as that of Ernest, but the second half of the book seemed to move a little more slowly for me. It also ended abruptly, in the manuscript as well as the annotation.

Overall, I would say that this book is definitely worth reading, especially for fans of dystopian stories.(less)

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Jul 07, 2009

Douglas rated it

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Recommends it for: Fans of Orwell, Huxley, and other novelists who wrote of dystopic themes

Shelves: dystopia-utopia, totalitarianism, fiction-speculative

During the Cold War, my teachers ignored and did not teach the whole of Jack London. We learned back then that he was a journalist who ventured into Alaska and wrote adventure stories about animals, such as Call of the Wild and White Fang. London was in fact a committed socialist who wrote many left-wing essays and several powerful novels about the plight of the poor and the socialist cause. Twice he ran for mayor of Oakland, California, as a socialist. The Iron Heel is London's dystopic nov...more

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Jan 05, 2012

Steven rated it

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Shelves: dystopia, science-fiction, 1001-books

While I was reading this book I had to keep reminding myself that it was written in the first decade of the 1900's. This was a book that was well before it's time with both dystopian and science fiction themes. The beginning parts of the book could also easily take place in today's society with some of the same themes. Capital vs. Labor, Capitalism vs. Socialism, Revolution and Class Warfare, Secret government intrigue and manipulation of identification. Maybe not the most accurate depictions of...more

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Nov 28, 2009

Andrew Donakowski rated it

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As heavy handed as the capitalist machine is repressive, the Iron Heel is an early take on the "dystopian" novel pulled off better and later by the likes of Aldous Huxly (Brave New World) and George Orwell (1984). Written in 1907, it is sometimes praised for it's "uncanny predictions" (ex, international tensions leading to the first world war, development of organized union "castes"). The back of the book describes it as "part science fiction, part dystopian ...more

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Oct 05, 2009

Peter Namtvedt rated it

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Recommends it for: Dan Quayle

This novel by Jack London is formed as an old manuscript by Avis Everhard, the lover and later wife of the man who long ago in the twentieth century, led the proletariat with help of the middle class to a socialist revolution.

I believe this book is where the phrase "dog eat dog" originated. page 60

A cute definition of "liberty" page 62, speaking to a group of clergy: "Do not forget ... that we had tacitly agreed that liberty in your case, gentleme...more

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Mar 22, 2011

David King rated it

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The really nice thing about this book is that it can be obtained for free as an E-book!

The novel is based upon a Manuscript which is hidden away during an attempted revolution against a capitalist oligarchy, before being found centuries later. The Manuscript is introduced and interspersed with footnotes of a scholar who is reviewing the manuscript centuries in the future.

Overall, I have to admit I enjoyed the book hugely. The political speeches and discussions made by o...more

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Jan 04, 2010

Wils Cain rated it

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Written at the beginning of the 20th Century this story is a dark vision of the future. It's incredibly powerful and should definitely be ranked with 1984, Brave New World, etc. The way the story is told is a large reason the book is so powerful. In the future (from today) a document is found which acts as record of a time the Labor party tried to rise up and overthrow the government in their own defense. The document starts at the very beginning to explain how quickly the government took aw...more

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Nov 11, 2011

Sondra Wolferman rated it

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Jack London is one of the greatest writers of the Twentieth Century, and 'The Call of the Wild' is near the top of my list of the greatest novels ever written. Therefore I approached this book with great expectations. For the first few chapters of 'The Iron Heel' my expectations were met as London's socialist hero Ernest Everhard predicts with uncanny precision many of the scenarios that are occurring in our society today. Indeed we are today living under the Iron Heel of a 'global elite' that i...more

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Feb 14, 2011

Bernard Norcott-mahany rated it

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First, let me say, I agree with the politics of this book. London, a lifelong socialist, here posits what might happen in the near future (book was written around 1910) regarding workers and the capitalist forces that controlled their lives. In the short term, London was very pessimistic -- he assumed there would be a revolution, but one that was put down -- he doesn't underestimate the power of capital to control information and travel, and so to control events.
The book, unfortunately...moreFirst, let me say, I agree with the politics of this book. London, a lifelong socialist, here posits what might happen in the near future (book was written around 1910) regarding workers and the capitalist forces that controlled their lives. In the short term, London was very pessimistic -- he assumed there would be a revolution, but one that was put down -- he doesn't underestimate the power of capital to control information and travel, and so to control events.
The book, unfortunately, as do most politically slanted works, has a tendency to preach, and even when you're preaching to the choir, it gets tiresome.
What makes the book interesting is that it's a first person narrative told by a woman, the daughter of a professor at the University of California, who falls in love with a labor organizer. He's much more in command of the facts than many of her dad's dinner guests, who are caught up in nice pietistic statements, but who don't really know what's going on. Of course, the young woman's falling for the labor guy does read like a romance novel -- he's a bit rough and determined when he takes her in his arms, and so on..
Not only do we have a novel written by a man, but from a woman's perspective, but the book has an introduction and notes which are supposedly written from a couple of hundred years in the future, when the socialist revolution has ultimately won out. It seems that the book is an artifact written by this young woman, whose husband is this labor leader of legend. She (and he) get their facts wrong from time to time, and the future editor adds comments setting the record straight. This work is also incomplete -- the work ends suddenly before the woman and her husband are captured, so that their final fate is unclear.
So as a stylistic exercise in narrative, the work has something to commend it, but its preachy style is a bit much at times. It fits that a young woman who has been converted to the cause would be so preachy, but it's still tough to take.

One note contains the observation made by a British labor leader about Chicago -- "Chicago is a pocket edition of hell." The note goes on to add that years later,the same leader, when asked if his views had changed, noted that they had; he now thought that "Hell was a pocket edition of Chicago." (less)

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Dec 14, 2007

Bruce rated it

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Recommends it for: politicos

(1) Capitalism, though I'm firmly in its clenches, indeed sucks. (2) London could really write. (3) Yours for the revolution...

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Oct 04, 2009

Scroutch rated it

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Weird book. It's a bit like a super-violent dystopian version of Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" (if that means anything to you). I'm sure you get the idea, though: socialist heroes are crushed by the "Iron Heel" of a capitalist plutocracy. Violence and bloody revolution ensue. All is told in a frame-tale setting from the PoV of an enlightened scholar from the future era of socialist peace and prosperity. Scholarly footnotes abound throughout the narrative (probably the m...more

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Jan 30, 2012

Mishi rated it

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The blurb makes the book sound like it is an action packed novel, and that's what drew me to it in the first place. The Iron Heel may be fiction, but it was written in a style that was a mixture between a manuscript and a biography.

The first 100 pages are filled with lengthy philosophical discussions, but there was enough side material between conversations to keep me interested. Even though things eventually picked up, the novel still read like a manuscript. I was a bit disappointe...more

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Feb 23, 2011

Ben rated it

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I initially had very high expectations for this book. I love dystopian novels, Jack London is a great author and the format was intriguing. At first, it seemed like my expectations would be met. However, eventually I grew weary of London's thinly veiled political diatribe. Too much of the book is spent providing convenient opportunities for Ernest to attack capitalism and glorify socialism. That would be fine if the rest of the story didn't suffer so badly because of it. Additionally, it b...more

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Nov 06, 2009

Andrew S Taylor rated it

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Didactic, two-dimensional, with all the subtlety of a flaming cow catapulted over a castle wall, this book is nonetheless hard to put down, and even harder to forget. London imagines a dystopian "future history" of America ruled by oligarchy, at the center of which is the portrait of Marxist martyr Ernest Everhard. Yes, that is actually his name.

Easy as it is to make light of London's stark vision of class struggle, it is worth remembering that, in his time, even joining ...more

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Oct 19, 2011

Jake M. rated it

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This book is only for a certain type of reader. On the surface, it is a literary platform depicting Jack London's socialist ideology. This is not a bad thing; but it simply reads as a political treatise for 80% of the time. The final twenty percent depicts the degeneration of the United States into ideological civil war between the capitalist Oligarchy/Iron Heel and the socialist Brotherhood of Man. The book is in the form of a manuscript written by a socialist revolutionary. It is often slow, a...more

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Dec 26, 2011

Craig DiLouie rated it

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This is Jack London like you’ve never read him. In THE IRON HEEL, his sweeping Dystopian novel published in 1908 (available free here, including in Kindle and other formats), a young upper class woman meets a socialist firebrand and becomes entwined in his destiny to play a part in a bloody class war fought on the streets of America. Labor, pushed deep into poverty and fed up with its share of the produce of capital, rebels against the capitalist class and elects socialists to Congress, which di...moreThis is Jack London like you’ve never read him. In THE IRON HEEL, his sweeping Dystopian novel published in 1908 (available free here, including in Kindle and other formats), a young upper class woman meets a socialist firebrand and becomes entwined in his destiny to play a part in a bloody class war fought on the streets of America. Labor, pushed deep into poverty and fed up with its share of the produce of capital, rebels against the capitalist class and elects socialists to Congress, which dispels with the trappings of democracy and forms a fascist government in order to hold onto its vast wealth and subvert labor to slavery. So the socialists, who believe the answer is to bring ownership of capital to everyone, commence their long revolution …

London was remarkably prescient about some things–the capitalists trump up a war to eliminate their capital surplus (the pretext of which is the Germans launching a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor) to start a world war in 1913, a Great Depression occurs, and so on. He also explains the never ending class struggle in easily understandable terms that are relevant today.

While most Americans value socialism for certain things (Social Security, Medicare, post office, police, firefighters, etc.), they often express a general distaste for it, and so the modern reader will likely not embrace the socialist solution proposed in the novel, seeing as how it worked out for the Soviet Union. And yet this was written long before the New Deal, progressive taxation, Social Security, the GI Bill, legal unionization/striking, Sherman Antitrust Act and so on helped to build what was once a strong middle class in America–a system that attempted to balance capitalism, which produces innovation, growth and opportunity, and socialism, which reduces cost for certain services, protects labor from capitalism’s excesses, and tries to make the system as a whole serve the needs of the many, not just the few. London lived in an America that was wholly capitalist–where children worked in dangerous factories, where if you lost an arm in a machine you could no longer work to feed your family, where there was a very small middle class and most people lived on the brink of poverty, where the Robber Barons formed trusts (monopolies) to unfairly undermine and destroy all competition, where corporations hired private armies to shoot strikers (or got the National Guard to do it when the strikers fought back), etc. etc. As the socialist elements of the American system continue to be slowly dismantled over the past 30 years under both Republican and Democratic Presidents and Congresses, we are beginning to see the effects–strong growth, but with the profits going to the few and not the many. And the result, as in London’s time, is social unrest, as evidenced by the Occupy Wall Street movement and general anger in America.

Reading THE IRON HEEL, therefore, may feel anachronistic with its stark choices of all capitalism or all socialism, but the basic issues involved–a capitalist builds a factory, workers produce goods in the factory, those goods produce a profit, now who gets what share of the profit?–are just as relevant today. Consider, for example, that since 2000, almost all economic gains in America went to capital, and labor got almost no share of the growth, and one can begin to understand the motivations of the Occupy Wall Street movement to protest economic injustice. Reading THE IRON HEEL, we also see how the system responds when it’s threatened–with incredible violence, just as today. The police are not dressing up in body armor, shooting tear gas, destroying private property, restricting press coverage and violently beating peaceful protestors for violating park ordinances and trumped-up health violations. They are obeying politicians who serve the rich few. The same occurs in the world of THE IRON HEEL. London’s America becomes a living hell, in fact, in which capital and labor fight a never ending war for power.

THE IRON HEEL will make you think. Guaranteed. It will make you think about where America came from, what it might have been, where it might be going. I highly recommend it.(less)

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Mar 27, 2011

Ancient rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: radical-visions, classics

The Iron Heel is more a political idea book about a possible American future cast in narrative form than a fleshed-out novel. But while somewhat lacking as a story, the vision is perhaps more compelling now than has been the case for many decades previous given trends in our contemporary society.

Given the concentration of wealth, power, and control into the hands of a small number of wealthy businesses and individuals, what lies in the future for a democratic society in the Unit...more The Iron Heel is more a political idea book about a possible American future cast in narrative form than a fleshed-out novel. But while somewhat lacking as a story, the vision is perhaps more compelling now than has been the case for many decades previous given trends in our contemporary society.

Given the concentration of wealth, power, and control into the hands of a small number of wealthy businesses and individuals, what lies in the future for a democratic society in the United States? This is the subject which the The Iron Heel seeks to explore. London envisions a grim and merciless struggle for power and dominance ahead, developments that will ultimately lead to the end of democracy and the beginning of an ongoing struggle between the impoverished, powerless majority and The Oligarchs, the modern-day aristocratic minority of wealth and privilege.

I'll admit it was a little difficult to get through some of the long dialogue sections, especially at the initial chapters which sound more like a something from a political tract or a comic book than the real speech of real people. That's part of the inherent difficulty of an idea story - it's hard to teach and preach without sounding teachy and the preachy.

On the other hand, I can see how The Iron Heel could serve as a way to reach an uneducated, general public without the means, inclination, or opportunity to research and understand politics and economics. If your story was written more for the purposes of advocacy journalism than polished art, you're probably not going to fret too much over the aesthetics.

London seems to take the position that violent conflict is simply inevitable, unavoidable, and even justifiable. Perhaps the struggle between the rebels and The Oligarchs has become more ambiguous and morally tangled in our age of terrorism.

I'd like to say that The Iron Heel is nothing more than an amusing sci-fi/horror story, but the threats to democratic society look more real every day. (less)

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Aug 02, 2010

Amy Sturgis added it · review of another edition

Shelves: postapocalyptic-dystopia, science-fiction-vintage

Before We or Brave New World or Anthem or 1984, there was The Iron Heel. I'm glad I read this classic dystopian novel. I knew going into it that this was Jack London's Marxist-socialist manifesto, so I was prepared for the explicit ideology of the work. Above and beyond his never-subtle sermonizing, however, several aspects of the story fascinated me.

For one thing, the narrative has three tiers: the oration of Ernest Everhard, the hero; the explanation of Avis, his wife and partner ...more

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Sep 29, 2010

Hatebeams rated it

· review of another edition

*SPOILERS*

This is a worthwhile read, if a little flawed in the telling, with some really excellent scenes (the climactic riot is one of them) and great dialogue. On the downside, Ernest Everhard (more like Blowhard) is a completely unbelievable and thus unsympathetic character (quite snotty and didactic to boot), BUT, our narrator is his loving wife, which extenuates this problem somewhat.

I am inclined to view this as a pessimistic, perhaps post-socialist novel. True, we...more

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