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War of the Classes
London grew up in poverty, earning a living through various legal and illegal means. He was a sailor and took part in the Klondike gold rush. The Call of the Wild, the classic story of sled-dog Buck brought him instant celebrity and established his readership to this day. Self-educated, London was heavily influenced by the works of Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche. This, along with his earlier experiences converted him to socialism as he explains in this volume.
Contents:
- The Class Struggle
- The Tramp
- The Scab
- The Question of the Maximum
- A Review
- Wanted: A New Law of Development
- How I Became a Socialist
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web.
Contents:
- The Class Struggle
- The Tramp
- The Scab
- The Question of the Maximum
- A Review
- Wanted: A New Law of Development
- How I Became a Socialist
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web.
85 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1906
47 people are currently reading
275 people want to read
About the author
Jack London
7,748 books7,736 followersJohn Griffith Chaney, better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.
London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.
His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".
London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.
His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 19, 2024
”To the average bourgeois mind, socialism is merely a menace, vague and formless. The average member of the capitalist class, when he discusses socialism, is condemned an ignoramus out of his own mouth. He does not know the literature of socialism, its philosophy, nor its politics.”
Socialism was at its pinnacle in the United States when Jack London wrote this work. Eugene Debs, the Socialists Party candidate for president, won six percent of the vote in the election of 1912 (the highest percentage ever won by a Socialist). But despite this, the majority of Americans had almost no actual knowledge about it. Then, as now, it was used as a nebulous scare word meaning little more than “be afraid!”
London, a passionate socialist, attempted to use his fame to spread knowledge of socialism. The essays in this work display his skill as a storytelling wordsmith, explaining in clear, often entertaining language the divisions that amounted to a open warfare between the working classes and the capitalist class, and how each related to the government and the law.
I found three of these essays partially interesting: The Tramp, The Scab, and How I Became a Socialist. The first two of these combine insights that are still active and relevant to our present day world with picturesque details of the more physically violent class warfare common in London’s time. The third of these is London’s own story of how an epiphany he had while a tramp, riding the rails across America, converted him to the cause of socialism.
The gist of The Tramp is that, while polite society and all right-thinking people despise and ostracize those habitually out of work as indolent parasites, that the government and capitalist class actually manipulates the labor markets to make certain that there is always an underclass of unemployed persons.
”It has been shown that there are more men than there is work for men, and that the surplus labor army is an economic necessity.”
This is necessary to the capitalist, as without this buffer of unemployment, the worker would have too much leverage, and there could be no scabs to replace him when he strikes.
In The Scab London deals with one of his favorite themes — the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest. He paints the struggle between labor and capital as all out warfare for survival. He strips the issue down from ideals and ideas to pure battle for supremacy:
”The only honest morality displayed by either side is white-hot indignation at the iniquities of the other side. The striking teamster complacently takes a scab driver into an alley, and with an iron bar breaks his arms, so that he can drive no more, but cries out to high Heaven for justice when the capitalist breaks his skull by means of a club in the hands of a policeman.”
”Without a quiver, a member of the capitalist group will run tens of thousands of pitiful child laborers through his life-destroying cotton factories, and weep maudlin and constitutional tears over one scab hit in the back with a brick.”
London grasped that, despite what propaganda existed to the contrary, that class struggle was a living reality:
”It is no longer a question of whether or not there is a class struggle. The question now is, what will be the outcome of the class struggle?”
London believed that the eventual triumph of socialism in America was inevitable. Reading this now, more than a century later, it is obvious that he was mistaken, at least within any timescale that he would have imagined. Yet this is still a valuable book on several levels. It gives a picture of London as dedicated socialist that has largely been erased from the public imagination of him. It paints a vivid picture of the violence of the clashes between capital and labor in the opening decades of the 20th century. And despite its age, it presents some valuable insights that are still pertinent today.
Socialism was at its pinnacle in the United States when Jack London wrote this work. Eugene Debs, the Socialists Party candidate for president, won six percent of the vote in the election of 1912 (the highest percentage ever won by a Socialist). But despite this, the majority of Americans had almost no actual knowledge about it. Then, as now, it was used as a nebulous scare word meaning little more than “be afraid!”
London, a passionate socialist, attempted to use his fame to spread knowledge of socialism. The essays in this work display his skill as a storytelling wordsmith, explaining in clear, often entertaining language the divisions that amounted to a open warfare between the working classes and the capitalist class, and how each related to the government and the law.
I found three of these essays partially interesting: The Tramp, The Scab, and How I Became a Socialist. The first two of these combine insights that are still active and relevant to our present day world with picturesque details of the more physically violent class warfare common in London’s time. The third of these is London’s own story of how an epiphany he had while a tramp, riding the rails across America, converted him to the cause of socialism.
The gist of The Tramp is that, while polite society and all right-thinking people despise and ostracize those habitually out of work as indolent parasites, that the government and capitalist class actually manipulates the labor markets to make certain that there is always an underclass of unemployed persons.
”It has been shown that there are more men than there is work for men, and that the surplus labor army is an economic necessity.”
This is necessary to the capitalist, as without this buffer of unemployment, the worker would have too much leverage, and there could be no scabs to replace him when he strikes.
In The Scab London deals with one of his favorite themes — the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest. He paints the struggle between labor and capital as all out warfare for survival. He strips the issue down from ideals and ideas to pure battle for supremacy:
”The only honest morality displayed by either side is white-hot indignation at the iniquities of the other side. The striking teamster complacently takes a scab driver into an alley, and with an iron bar breaks his arms, so that he can drive no more, but cries out to high Heaven for justice when the capitalist breaks his skull by means of a club in the hands of a policeman.”
”Without a quiver, a member of the capitalist group will run tens of thousands of pitiful child laborers through his life-destroying cotton factories, and weep maudlin and constitutional tears over one scab hit in the back with a brick.”
London grasped that, despite what propaganda existed to the contrary, that class struggle was a living reality:
”It is no longer a question of whether or not there is a class struggle. The question now is, what will be the outcome of the class struggle?”
London believed that the eventual triumph of socialism in America was inevitable. Reading this now, more than a century later, it is obvious that he was mistaken, at least within any timescale that he would have imagined. Yet this is still a valuable book on several levels. It gives a picture of London as dedicated socialist that has largely been erased from the public imagination of him. It paints a vivid picture of the violence of the clashes between capital and labor in the opening decades of the 20th century. And despite its age, it presents some valuable insights that are still pertinent today.
October 28, 2016
I don't know enough Socialist thought to give a decent critique of this book. Some comments seems relevant and some obsolete. I am a dyed in the wool unionist. I think unions have largely been made obsolete by the political actions of the 1% ers. One of their most pernicious acts is to convince a whole lot of people that unions are not in society's interests. Why? Because the organized actions of unions are in the greater interest of the 80% of workers and they hold the 1% responsible for an equitable deal for workers as well as capital. We need to restrict the income of management to 50 times that of the highest paid salary worker. There should be no more deals like that one with the criminal president of Wells Fargo where he is given 200 million to retire! Shame, shame, shame.
September 16, 2016
A very intense (socially and politically) book. Jack London, obviously influenced by Karl Marx's & Friedrich Engels' "Communist Manifesto" writes his youth story in a cruel U.S.A. during difficult times.
Ένα αρκετά έντονο (κοινωνικά και πολιτικά) βιβλίο. Φανερά επηρεασμένος από το "Κομμουνιστικό Μανιφέστο" του Καρλ Μαρξ και του Φρίντριχ Ένγκελς, ο Τζακ Λόντον σε δύσκολους καιρούς γράφει την ιστορία των νεανικών του χρόνων σε μια άτεγκτη χώρα (Η.Π.Α.).
Ένα αρκετά έντονο (κοινωνικά και πολιτικά) βιβλίο. Φανερά επηρεασμένος από το "Κομμουνιστικό Μανιφέστο" του Καρλ Μαρξ και του Φρίντριχ Ένγκελς, ο Τζακ Λόντον σε δύσκολους καιρούς γράφει την ιστορία των νεανικών του χρόνων σε μια άτεγκτη χώρα (Η.Π.Α.).
July 4, 2020
”The one commodity that labor had to sell was muscle. The honor of labor had no price in the market place. Labor had muscle, and muscle alone, to sell. […] So I risolved to sell no more muscle, and to become e vender of brains. Then began a frantic pursuite of knowledge. […] While thus equipping myself to become a brain merchant, it was inevitable that I should delve into sociology. […] I had thought, and a vast deal more. I discovered that i was a Socialist. As a brain merchant I was a success. ”, scriveva Jack London in What life means to me (Il senso della vita).
E così, ostinatamente e con passione, leggeva, scriveva e lottava, trasformandosi in un mercante di cervelli, ”Listen! I write every day including Sunday. I swim every day about two hours. i sit on the sand naked in the sun and read for an hour every day. […] I am still the same revolutionary socialist. I have not clipped nor moderated my utterance. And I am more irritated than ever by the smug and brutal bourgeoisie”, riportava in una lettera del 1906.
I tre racconti raccolti in questo libro, scritti con l’ottica esemplare della working class, danno un po’ la cifra del London socialista e rivoluzionario in grado di coniugare gli ideali anche con il pragmatismo tipicamente americano, come nel caso de L’apostata, in cui Johnny, giovane ragazzo che lavora ed è sfruttato da quando era piccolo e che mantiene i fratelli, prende coscienza e decide che è arrivato il tempo di non lavorare più, maturando una via di fuga individualista, ”ora, questa settimana sono stato completamente immobile. Non ho fatto un solo movimento per ore e ore. Ti dirò che è stato meraviglioso, starmene seduto, per ore e ore, e non fare nulla. Non sono mai stato felice prima. Non avevo tempo. Mi muovevo di continuo. Quello non era un modo per essere felici, e non lo faro mai più.” Ed è così che diventa un hobo. (sul fenomeno degli hoboes si può leggere il bellissimo saggio Il vagabondo : sociologia dell'uomo senza dimora , di Nels Anderson, scritto nel 1923)
Ne Il sogno di Debs si racconta di un poderoso e prolungato sciopero generale, vecchio sogno del socialista e sindacalista Eugene Debs che si realizza, messo in piedi dal sindacato ILW; spiccano la solidità dell’organizzazione e la compattezza e compostezza della classe dei lavoratori organizzati a cui si contrappongono la furia, il rancore e la violenza del sottoproletariato e della borghesia sfruttatrice, ”Tutto era fermo per lo sciopero. Tutte le botteghe erano state svaligiate dalle classi abbienti […] Le classi abbienti si diedero alla fuga precipitosa e la gente più povera, anch’essa contagiata, abbandonò la città.” Il punto di vista, qui, è quello di un rappresentante della borghesia agiata, illuminato ma sempre difensore dei propri privilegi. La sigla sindacale ILW è fittizia, in realtà in quegli anni era sorto l’Industrial Workers of the World, di ispirazione socialista e anarchica, di cui si può leggere nell’interessante libro One Big Union , di Valerio Evangelisti.
Il terzo racconto, A sud dello slot probabilmente trae una qualche ispirazione dal Lo strano caso del dottor Jeckyll e di Mr Hyde, London stimava Stevenson, come si legge sul sito del Robert Luis Stevenson Museum, ”Other authors who admired him greatly but with whom he didn’t enjoy a personal relationship included Jack London and Rudyard Kipling. Il protagonista del racconto è un docente universitario che per studiare la working class si trasferisce periodicamente nel quartiere operaio assumendo le sembianze di un lavoratore sindacalizzato, fino a che la situazione diventa insostenibile e rinuncia alle sue origini borghesi, ”Drummond credeva nell’ordine pubblico e nella conservazione di tutto ciò che era ufficiale, ma quel selvaggio rivoltoso che era dentro di lui non era dello stesso avviso. mai come allora Freddie Drummond si affidò alla sua ferrea inibizione per reprimerlo. Ma si dice che ogni casa divisa al suo interno sia destinata a crollare. E Freddie Drummond scoprì di aver diviso tutta la sua volontà e la sua forza con Bill Totts, e avvertì che la loro simbiosi stava per scindersi. […] Da qualche parte dietro quegli occhi, a tentare di controllare il loro corpo comune, c’erano Freddie Drummond, sociologo assennato e conservatore, e Bill Totts, sindacalista bellicoso e cosciente della propria classe.”
Chiude il libro l’intenso e passionale Come sono diventato socialista che conclude scrivendo: ”Da quel giorno ho letto molto, ma nessun argomento di carattere economico, nessuna lucida dimostrazione della logica e dell’inevitabilità del socialismo mi hanno persuaso così profondamente e in modo convincente quanto il giorno in cui, per la prima volta, ho visto le pareti della fossa sociale ergersi intorno a me, e ho sentito che stavo scivolando giù, sempre più giù, verso il fondo dell’abisso.”
Ecco, mi piacerebbe assegnare sei stelle, a questo vagabondo.
(link a una riproduzione anastatica in PDF di What life means to me, pubblicata dalla Indiana State University Library)
E così, ostinatamente e con passione, leggeva, scriveva e lottava, trasformandosi in un mercante di cervelli, ”Listen! I write every day including Sunday. I swim every day about two hours. i sit on the sand naked in the sun and read for an hour every day. […] I am still the same revolutionary socialist. I have not clipped nor moderated my utterance. And I am more irritated than ever by the smug and brutal bourgeoisie”, riportava in una lettera del 1906.
I tre racconti raccolti in questo libro, scritti con l’ottica esemplare della working class, danno un po’ la cifra del London socialista e rivoluzionario in grado di coniugare gli ideali anche con il pragmatismo tipicamente americano, come nel caso de L’apostata, in cui Johnny, giovane ragazzo che lavora ed è sfruttato da quando era piccolo e che mantiene i fratelli, prende coscienza e decide che è arrivato il tempo di non lavorare più, maturando una via di fuga individualista, ”ora, questa settimana sono stato completamente immobile. Non ho fatto un solo movimento per ore e ore. Ti dirò che è stato meraviglioso, starmene seduto, per ore e ore, e non fare nulla. Non sono mai stato felice prima. Non avevo tempo. Mi muovevo di continuo. Quello non era un modo per essere felici, e non lo faro mai più.” Ed è così che diventa un hobo. (sul fenomeno degli hoboes si può leggere il bellissimo saggio Il vagabondo : sociologia dell'uomo senza dimora , di Nels Anderson, scritto nel 1923)
Ne Il sogno di Debs si racconta di un poderoso e prolungato sciopero generale, vecchio sogno del socialista e sindacalista Eugene Debs che si realizza, messo in piedi dal sindacato ILW; spiccano la solidità dell’organizzazione e la compattezza e compostezza della classe dei lavoratori organizzati a cui si contrappongono la furia, il rancore e la violenza del sottoproletariato e della borghesia sfruttatrice, ”Tutto era fermo per lo sciopero. Tutte le botteghe erano state svaligiate dalle classi abbienti […] Le classi abbienti si diedero alla fuga precipitosa e la gente più povera, anch’essa contagiata, abbandonò la città.” Il punto di vista, qui, è quello di un rappresentante della borghesia agiata, illuminato ma sempre difensore dei propri privilegi. La sigla sindacale ILW è fittizia, in realtà in quegli anni era sorto l’Industrial Workers of the World, di ispirazione socialista e anarchica, di cui si può leggere nell’interessante libro One Big Union , di Valerio Evangelisti.
Il terzo racconto, A sud dello slot probabilmente trae una qualche ispirazione dal Lo strano caso del dottor Jeckyll e di Mr Hyde, London stimava Stevenson, come si legge sul sito del Robert Luis Stevenson Museum, ”Other authors who admired him greatly but with whom he didn’t enjoy a personal relationship included Jack London and Rudyard Kipling. Il protagonista del racconto è un docente universitario che per studiare la working class si trasferisce periodicamente nel quartiere operaio assumendo le sembianze di un lavoratore sindacalizzato, fino a che la situazione diventa insostenibile e rinuncia alle sue origini borghesi, ”Drummond credeva nell’ordine pubblico e nella conservazione di tutto ciò che era ufficiale, ma quel selvaggio rivoltoso che era dentro di lui non era dello stesso avviso. mai come allora Freddie Drummond si affidò alla sua ferrea inibizione per reprimerlo. Ma si dice che ogni casa divisa al suo interno sia destinata a crollare. E Freddie Drummond scoprì di aver diviso tutta la sua volontà e la sua forza con Bill Totts, e avvertì che la loro simbiosi stava per scindersi. […] Da qualche parte dietro quegli occhi, a tentare di controllare il loro corpo comune, c’erano Freddie Drummond, sociologo assennato e conservatore, e Bill Totts, sindacalista bellicoso e cosciente della propria classe.”
Chiude il libro l’intenso e passionale Come sono diventato socialista che conclude scrivendo: ”Da quel giorno ho letto molto, ma nessun argomento di carattere economico, nessuna lucida dimostrazione della logica e dell’inevitabilità del socialismo mi hanno persuaso così profondamente e in modo convincente quanto il giorno in cui, per la prima volta, ho visto le pareti della fossa sociale ergersi intorno a me, e ho sentito che stavo scivolando giù, sempre più giù, verso il fondo dell’abisso.”
Ecco, mi piacerebbe assegnare sei stelle, a questo vagabondo.
(link a una riproduzione anastatica in PDF di What life means to me, pubblicata dalla Indiana State University Library)
January 11, 2014
I expected this to be a novel, since description on Amazon only mentioned this was converted to digital by volunteers. Still, it was a very interesting book. It very well described the struggle for survival by the working class in his day and age. It was very interesting to find out, he was a committed socialist. It was also very interesting to read how not much has changed after a century in the war of the classes. I wonder, if he were still alive today, how he would write part 2...
August 14, 2017
Very dated now
August 29, 2019
This treatise sets out London's socialist thought development. As he sets out he was not the product of an academic political education. He was however educated in the school of hard knocks and life experiences. It is easier to relate to his earlier work "The Iron Heel" when you understand where he came from and what framed his thought process. No-one can really witness major injustice being inflicted on our class and not be driven to consider another more equitable way to organise society. The treatment of workers attempts to combine for improvement in working conditions, wages etc. particularly in the USA in and around the time of London were nothing short of class-warfare. This is a great reminder of the gulf in class interests.
January 16, 2022
A unique, and at times strange, sort of manifesto for socialism. The essays different both in content and quality and I took a year’s break in reading the book halfway through. Wildly outdated at times particularly in his materialst/‘scientific socialism’ arguments which made more sense, albeit still not perfect in his era.
Overall, a unique man in the USA at this time and nice to see a socialist manifesto from experiences in the 19th century.
Not without flaws but interesting nonetheless. Despite being a form of propaganda it usually stays fairly innocent in just talking a story rather than bashing the reader over the head with dogma.
Overall, a unique man in the USA at this time and nice to see a socialist manifesto from experiences in the 19th century.
Not without flaws but interesting nonetheless. Despite being a form of propaganda it usually stays fairly innocent in just talking a story rather than bashing the reader over the head with dogma.
October 11, 2021
Well written
This well written book lead me to realize how little the word has changed over the last 100 years. It saddens me to see people treated as disposable commodities and pawns.
This well written book lead me to realize how little the word has changed over the last 100 years. It saddens me to see people treated as disposable commodities and pawns.
June 7, 2022
Buen libro, ideal para aquellas personas que quieren introducirse en el socialismo. Ideal para liberales que carecen de formación política.
January 15, 2023
Rambling, incoherent nonsense
March 25, 2015
Not that good as expected
The world seen trough the socialist's mind. I wanted to read it for so long. It is a good way to sense someone's perspective. Accordingly, that perspective turned out not to be my cup of tea. I was expecting more evaluation and criticism, rather than the biased opinion of the author. Always mentioning some 'scientific facts' without naming or referencing any of them. Otherwise, it was fairly well written and revealed interesting observations.
The world seen trough the socialist's mind. I wanted to read it for so long. It is a good way to sense someone's perspective. Accordingly, that perspective turned out not to be my cup of tea. I was expecting more evaluation and criticism, rather than the biased opinion of the author. Always mentioning some 'scientific facts' without naming or referencing any of them. Otherwise, it was fairly well written and revealed interesting observations.
September 25, 2014
This is a very old book, but still is of great significance. Couldn't appreciate all facts in the book as a lot of them have changed or become irrelevant. However the book has helped shape my views from a pro-capitalistic to socialistic one. Stresses on several issues of capitalism and socialism and in the struggle among people with different ideas and goals in life.
March 4, 2013
12 ratings, 2 reviews. Jack London's 1906 political tract, outlines working-class socialist sensibilities from the Pacific Northwest. less than a hundred pages, a quick and tightly-written read. off copyright and free on ibooks.
October 27, 2011
This book puts in prospective how it feels to become a lower or a higher class than you are currently in.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews