The Iron Heel

by Jack London

Book Overview

Part science fiction, part dystopian fantasy, part radical socialist tract, Jack London's The Iron Heel offers a grim depiction of warfare between the classes in America and around the globe. Originally published nearly a hundred years ago, it anticipated many features of the past century, including the rise of fascism, the emergence of domestic terrorism, and the growth of centralized government surveillance and authority. What begins as a...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143039717
• ISBN13: 9780143039716
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

gripping

One part socialist dogma, one part muckraking expose and one part thrilling drama, The Iron Heel was and is dynamite. Much is made of London's predictions about fascism, and the book does seem to predict the actions of the Nazi's in the Reichstag fire affair, but in truth, the notion of fascism as the successor to liberal capitalism is a standard Marxist historical analysis. Nevertheless, the book is brilliant, and very well written. It is easy reading and a book you won't want to put down. I read it in a day. It is as relevant now as ever, in spite of its age, and the only fault you might ascribe is London's failure to predict the rise and power of the mass media. Sure, the Iron Heel of our day are not built on rails, but on oil, but this is only a minor error of timing. The capitalists have in fact frozen the market in an attempt to retain their market dominance, they have simply done it a little later than London imagined, and frankly, the truth is that London was not seeking to write a history of the future, it is not a specific prediction, but a general one, and as that, it is chilling. Vive la revolution.

The Iron Heel of the Plutocracy.

"This then is our answer . . . We will grind you revolutionists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces." - Mr. Wickson from _The Iron Heel_ _The Iron Heel_ by American writer Jack London, first written in 1908, and republished by Lawrence Hill Books, is a profoundly philosophical work in the form of fiction advocating the alternative of radical socialism and revolution to the capitalist system. Jack London was a rugged adventurer and a novelist who was born into extreme poverty and became an idealistic proponent of socialism. London was influenced philosophically by such profound thinkers as Charles Darwin (whose concept of the "survival of the fittest" plays such a prevalent role in many of his stories as the "law of tooth and claw"), Herbert Spencer (social Darwinist philosopher), Friedrich Nietzsche (whose superman ideal plays a prominent role among London's ultra-masculine protagonists), and Karl Marx (whose economic theories and belief in the inevitability of proletarian revolution underlay many of London's socialist beliefs). Born into poverty, London had seen first hand the harmful effects of the plutocracy/oligarchy of elite capitalists on the poor and working class, and in this novel he puts the words of an indictment of the capitalist class into the mouth of his working class hero as having mismanaged society. London argues that there is no reason for anyone to be starving within society given the increased production capabilities of the modern age as compared with those of the stone age. _The Iron Heel_ is supposedly a document left by one Avis Everhard, a female revolutionist in the earlier half of the twentieth century, extolling the heroism of her working class philosopher-socialist husband Ernest Everhard who fought the plutocracy. This document supposedly has been preserved to reflect the era in which the oligarchy took its most oppressive measures against the working class by forming the "Iron Heel" to crush the working class and the middle class together. However, according to the story the proletariat revolution eventually triumphed bringing about a new era in subsequent centuries. London believed this triumph was inevitable given the theories of Karl Marx which Ernest expounds upon within the story. _The Iron Heel_ begins at the home of John Cunningham, Avis Everhard's father, where a group of Christian churchmen have met to discuss the problems of the working class. John Cunningham was a physicist, who has taken a particular interest in philosophy and economics. As part of their discussion, Ernest Everhard is invited to represent the working class. London's description of the thrust and parry of verbal sparing is very effective. Ernest effectively defeats in argument all the men and shows them the philosophy of the working class. Later one of the Christian churchmen, Bishop Morehouse, will come to embrace socialism himself, but will be dismissed as "overworked" and "insane" by the ruling oliga

a masterful work

Jack London gives a chillingly realistic tale of the rise of "The Iron Heel", which is a term for the capitalists who control some 75%-90% of the wealth of the world and use it to keep power. When Ernest and Avis Everhard try to lead a socialist revolution, The Iron Heel steps up and attempts to crush it. The Iron Heel mercylisly slaughters the proletariat and the socialists. While Eric Blair's (George Orwell) 1984 was a great warning and Zamyatin's We was frighteningly logical, London's The Iron Heel is unquestioningly the most realistic of the genre.

London's Greatest Work

Why is Jack London's greatest work also the most difficult ot find in print?Too much of the truth lies in its text.Get your hands on a copy of this book while you are still permitted to.

More on Target than Orwell's 1984!

With "The Iron Heel," Jack London does a much better job of predicting today's world than George Orwell's book "1984." London depicts a world where government serves the business community, not the people, and there has been an incredible concentration in the ownership of the means of communication and the media. Speak out against this and the iron heel crushes you.This book is an exciting, political adventure romance that you can't put down -- as long as you get through the first 40 pages of downright boring socialist polemics. If you want to really understand where we are headed, read "The Iron Heel" it today. Hard to believe it was written in 1906.