The Inevitable White Man

by Jack London

Short story.

Genres: Short Stories

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

John 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".

Reviews

[Keith Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book everyone could benefit from reading. In this book Jack London states the white mans objective clearer than I’ve ever seen before in print; “ The white man's mission is to farm the world, and it's a big enough job cut out for him.” It’s an extraordinarily loaded statement that confirms (for me) why….well, why things are the way they are in the world. The ego and ignorance required to see this mission through is also described in this work of art. Jack London, who was raised by a black caretaker, eloquently says what many whites think but won’t say in “mixed company” and I applaud him for it. The only thing he said in this book that I don’t agree with is this: "The black will never understand the white, nor the white the black, as long as black is black and white is white." Oh no Mr. London, some blacks will get you, loud and clear.

It’s an awesome read

[Forked Radish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inevitable, but not inedible... A warning to sensitive readers: the 'n' word is used at least twice.