The Iron Heel Jack London 9781542362450 Books
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The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908. Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian", it chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is arguably the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are most explicitly on display. A forerunner of soft science fiction novels and stories of the 1960s and '70s, the book stresses future changes in society and politics while paying much less attention to technological changes. The book is unusual among London's writings (and in the literature of the time in general) in being a first-person narrative of a woman protagonist written by a man. Much of the narrative is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, including events in San Francisco and Sonoma County.
The Iron Heel Jack London 9781542362450 Books
Jack London's 1908 The Iron Heel tells the captivating and terrifying tale of the Socialist revolution against the Oligarchy. Uncomfortably apt for today's American political climate, The Iron Heel warns us of the bloodshed and terror that reigns as revolutionaries try to overthrow the establishment. The destruction of the middle class, the enslavement of the lower classes, bombs, machine guns, the use of surgeons to permanently disguise, and spies everywhere on both sides... heavy losses will be sustained in this battle that hardly feels as though anyone can win.As a piece of writing, The Iron Heel is masterful. London writes as historian Anthony Meredith inserting footnotes into the manuscript of Avis Everhard, wife of leading revolutionary, Ernest Everhard, after his assassination. Avis tells most of the story, with Meredith inserting commentary here or there to provide updates and contextual assistance to the reader from some 700 years later. Though I was initially skeptical of London's ability to be two narrators at once and even more skeptical of his ability to write as a woman telling the story of her and her husband's role in a revolution, London did both masterfully. At times I forgot I was reading a work of fiction at all, and more often, I also forgot I was reading the words of a woman as created by a man. London becomes his two narrators so smoothly and feels his words so fully in each voice, that the reader easily forgets reality. We are Avis Everhard, strong female protagonist, leader of a revolution, enamored wife of Ernest, and utterly caught up and terrified at the same time. We are also Anthony Meredith, reading and commenting on a manuscript as a historian, missing so many details but providing even more as we look back 700 years from the wonder-city of Ardis.
Read Jack London's The Iron Heel. Soak it in and feel the bombs and the blows of fists. Feel the terror and anger. Then, finally, look around you and see that his dystopia is not, in fact, so far off. Which side of the revolution will you be on?
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The Iron Heel Jack London 9781542362450 Books Reviews
"I was beginning to see through the appearances of the society in which I had always lived, and to find the frightful realities that were beneath." Avis Everhard
This book, considered to be one of the first modern dystopian novels, isn't one to read for its literary merits. I agree with others that it can be very heavy-handed and didactic. What it does do well is lay out London's political beliefs and the Marxist theory that underpins them in an accessible form. I was very surprised to discover that the book was written before WWI. London demonstrates extraordinary foresight when it comes to the competing economic forces that led to two world wars and which are today coming into sharp conflict once again. He sees with great clarity the way the labour movement has been corrupted and turned against the people it is supposed to represent. He knows how ruthlessly the oligarchy is capable of reacting when it is threatened and his descriptions of violence and repression are depressingly familiar. This book is more relevant today than ever.
When the workers unite internationally in opposition to war the ruling class's response is swift and brutal but they have a formidable foe in the organised working class movement. The oligarchy's strategy is "divide and conquer" and they do this by elevating a section of the working class and their representatives to a "labour aristocracy" while ramping up repression against the rest. The oligarchy is aided in its war on the working class by the fact that it controls the media and the judiciary, and this is clear when the socialist presses are shut down. It also has an army of mercenaries known as the "black hundreds" who are willing to do its dirty work whenever they are called upon.
Despite their apparent strength, the oligarchy cannot quash all opposition and the brutal reality of life under this system for the majority creates an underground movement of revolutionaries who are willing to die for their cause. They penetrate into the deepest recesses of the "iron heel" and assassinate the leaders that are deemed enemies to the working class. The oligarchy also infiltrate the socialist movement and there is much intrigue and betrayal. At the end of the book an uprising of the workers is thwarted by the oligarchy, but the revolutionaries in Chicago are tricked into thinking that it is going ahead, unaware that the Iron Heel is poised and waiting to crush them. What follows is an orgy of horrific violence where the "people of the abyss" (the most downtrodden in society) are slaughtered in their thousands and Avis Everhard, the narrator, barely makes it out alive.
London portrays the "people of the abyss" as barely human and I was disturbed by the fact that they were seen as expendable by the socialist leaders, providing a timely distraction when they revolted against the forces of the Iron Heel. The use of violence by a movement which is trying to create a more just and equal society is difficult to swallow for many, including myself, but it's an unfortunate reality of war. The oligarchy would not let go of their hold on power without a fight, no matter how widespread the opposition and their control of the political and legal systems mean it could not happen peacefully. London makes this clear when Ernest Everhard confronts a member of the oligarchy with the working class's desire to overthrow them
"We will hunt the bear. We will not reply to the bear in words. Our reply shall be couched in terms of lead. We are in power. Nobody will deny it. By virtue of that power will shall remain in power....In roar of shell an shrapnel and in whine of machine-guns will our answer be couched. We will grind you revolutionists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces. The world is ours, we are its lords, and our it shall remain."
"I am answered," Ernest said quietly. "It is the only answer that could be given. Power. It is what we of the working class preach. We know, and well we know by bitter experience, that no appeal for the right, for justice, for humanity, can ever touch you. Your hearts are as hard as your heels with which you tread upon the faces of the poor."
The violence unleashed by the state in defence of its interests is always portrayed as acceptable and necessary while those who oppose it are branded as criminals. The only other alternative in the book war for the masses to accept their life in chains under the oligarchy which condemned them to live and die in poverty. The endless killing on both sides though was repellent to me.
One thing I really liked about the book was the way London touched on the spiritual beliefs of the revolutionaries. People who are willing to devote and sacrifice their own lives to a greater good without any belief in an afterlife fascinate me for so many reasons, not least of which is that they seem like the most spiritual people of all. Avis wrote of her husband
"And all this he did with no hope of future reward. In his conception of things there was no future life. He, who fairly burnt with immortality, denied himself immortality - such was the paradox of him. He, so warm in spirit, was dominated by that cold and forbidding philosophy, materialistic monism."
Altogether an excellent read but I wish London had taken a little more care with the literary aspects of the book, especially in the first half, which could have gained him the wide readership this book deserved. I'll finish with one of my favourite quotes from the book
"You pompously call yourselves Republicans and Democrats. There is no Republican Party. There is no Democratic Party. There are no Republicans nor Democrats in this House. You are lick-spittlers and panderers, the creatures of the Plutocracy. You talk verbosely in antiquated terminology of your love of liberty, and all the whole you wear the scarlet livery of the Iron Heel."
I read Iron Heel and It Can't Happen Here back to back and the ridiculousness of the characters have been all too real and these books have proved to be more prophetic with the passing of time. Iron Heel is a little slow to get started and has moments that then to lag a bit but overall it is a novel (both of them) ought to be read----now more than ever. Both authors saw with an eerie clearity to rise of this character----from the pages and made flesh.
Jack London's 1908 The Iron Heel tells the captivating and terrifying tale of the Socialist revolution against the Oligarchy. Uncomfortably apt for today's American political climate, The Iron Heel warns us of the bloodshed and terror that reigns as revolutionaries try to overthrow the establishment. The destruction of the middle class, the enslavement of the lower classes, bombs, machine guns, the use of surgeons to permanently disguise, and spies everywhere on both sides... heavy losses will be sustained in this battle that hardly feels as though anyone can win.
As a piece of writing, The Iron Heel is masterful. London writes as historian Anthony Meredith inserting footnotes into the manuscript of Avis Everhard, wife of leading revolutionary, Ernest Everhard, after his assassination. Avis tells most of the story, with Meredith inserting commentary here or there to provide updates and contextual assistance to the reader from some 700 years later. Though I was initially skeptical of London's ability to be two narrators at once and even more skeptical of his ability to write as a woman telling the story of her and her husband's role in a revolution, London did both masterfully. At times I forgot I was reading a work of fiction at all, and more often, I also forgot I was reading the words of a woman as created by a man. London becomes his two narrators so smoothly and feels his words so fully in each voice, that the reader easily forgets reality. We are Avis Everhard, strong female protagonist, leader of a revolution, enamored wife of Ernest, and utterly caught up and terrified at the same time. We are also Anthony Meredith, reading and commenting on a manuscript as a historian, missing so many details but providing even more as we look back 700 years from the wonder-city of Ardis.
Read Jack London's The Iron Heel. Soak it in and feel the bombs and the blows of fists. Feel the terror and anger. Then, finally, look around you and see that his dystopia is not, in fact, so far off. Which side of the revolution will you be on?
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