Iron Heel

Rating:
Summary: Socialism? Nah, but the story still entertains
Review: I am certain most people have heard of Jack London before, probably due to his stories about nature and man's place in it. But London was also a hard-core socialist, a big name in a time when industrialism and its deleterious effects swept the country like a tidal wave. Upton Sinclair went so far as to refer to this offer, albeit obliquely, in his seminal 1905 novel THE JUNGLE. London's socialism emerged from his rough childhood in California and a period spent in a New York prison as a convict laborer. Through rigorous self-education, the author raised himself out of the squalor of the lowest classes and began to write stories and books. He became wildly popular, eventually becoming the highest paid writer of his time. London's own success hardly quelled his love for socialism. He spoke to workingmen across the country, touting socialist candidates for political office while scorning the plutocrats who ran the country. London eventually took his political views one step further, penning THE IRON HEEL in 1907 in order to express his views on how the capitalists and socialists would eventually lock horns. The result is a bleak novel about how capitalism will eventually resort to fascistic principles to protect the wealthy.

The structure of this novel takes the form of a diary, written by one Avis Everhard, the wife of socialist firebrand Ernest Everhard, in the early part of the twentieth century. The diary contains footnotes inserted 700 years after the events depicted in the novel, after the socialists won the battle against capitalism. The first part of Avis's account describes her first encounter with Ernest, at a dinner her famous physicist father threw to see how his capitalist friends would deal with a young socialist. Avis predictably falls in love with the virile, intelligent Ernest and quickly falls under his spell. The following chapters describe Avis's conversion to socialism under the tutelage of Ernest. She discovers that the law courts and print media are under the control of industrialists, and the universities and social organizations function as mere shills for big business. Avis's father soon converts as well, as does a bishop who originally opposed Ernest's brash ideas. Ernest continually preaches that the capitalist system will collapse, citing as proof Karl Marx's idea about surpluses. In short, according to Everhard, capitalist countries always produce too much. In order to get rid of this abundance of goods, corporations must move into underdeveloped countries and dump their products. This leads to rapid development and then a new surplus in this region that must then seek another area to develop. Eventually, capitalism will reach a finite limit as all areas of the globe attain development. This eventuality, according to Marx/London, will lead to socialism's triumph.

Of course, the collapse comes quickly when an economic downturn leads to widespread strikes. The plutocracy, which London refers to as the oligarchs, seize power using totalitarian tactics. Relying on laws passed through a corporate friendly congress, the oligarchs sends in troops to crush labor uprisings. The upper classes want all of the wealth, so they squeeze out the middle class in order to dominate everybody else through the creation of giant trusts. Threats soon lead to gunshots as the lower classes battle the rich for control of the country. With the power of the military and institutions on their side, the oligarchs gain control over most of the country and its citizens. The rest of the book describes the civil wars and rebellions that break out in America, with footnotes from the future describing how things eventually turned out. The book concludes with a grim chapter about an enormously bloody uprising in Chicago where the oligarchs and the socialist revolutionaries finally duke it out in large numbers.

The introduction explains that the Ernest character is actually a symbolic representation of London himself. This makes sense because Ernest Everhard is one of those perfect souls who can do no wrong. During the dinner at Avis's house, Ernest holds his own against a slew of highly educated individuals who simply cannot form a coherent argument against socialism. For Everhard, and by extension London, a man who uses "facts" always defeats those who do not. The facts here concern the realities of the working classes and the condition of the factories. Theories cannot and will not solve the problems of capitalist exploitation because these theories assume that business has little or no responsibility for the well being of humanity. I would simply ask Everhard one question: how will you solve the inevitable problem of motivation? That is, under socialism, how will you convince people not to strive for a higher social station? We know how the communist regimes in Russia, China, and Eastern Europe answered this dilemma; they simply killed off anyone who dared question the dictatorship of the proletariat (as if the proletariat ever had any influence whatsoever in any of these governments). In London's futuristic socialist world, one assumes there are no secret police directorates, no political intrigues, and no questioning of the system. Yeah, right. Like every human being will embrace one overarching political regime.

THE IRON HEEL contains copious amounts of action, espionage, political intrigue, and even a little romance. Although I don't agree with London's ideas, at least he knows how to write an appealing story. The book is difficult to classify since it embraces both dystopian and utopian ideas. London never leaves the reader in doubt as to ultimately wins the war for control of the world, and reading about it does provide a measure of amusement that makes THE IRON HEEL a worthy read for socialists and capitalists alike.

Rating:
Summary: Everhard or London: which was the rapid socialist here?
Review: I did enjoy the book myself though it dragged in many parts and in some parts confusing, especially in the chapter known as "Mechanics of a Dream" which was a troulbing chapter. The book was a rapid apporach on socialism and the evantually downfall of captialism which i agree with, with captailsim being the downfall of everything.I would recommend this book to many people who have any views or intrest on communist or socialist history and plus its a great novel.

Rating:
Summary: Everhard or London: which was the rapid socialist here?
Review: I did enjoy the book myself though it dragged in many parts and in some parts confusing, especially in the chapter known as "Mechanics of a Dream" which was a troulbing chapter. The book was a rapid apporach on socialism and the evantually downfall of captialism which i agree with, with captailsim being the downfall of everything.I would recommend this book to many people who have any views or intrest on communist or socialist history and plus its a great novel.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious douchebags of the world, unite!
Review: I have read nearly all London's works. The Iron Heel is not as well
known. He weaves a tale of fact and some fiction of the crushing of
the union movement in Chicago. A diary of relentenless persecution, by friends and foes of organized labor and how it is done. A Marketing Strategy of Demonizing and Crushing The Poor Working Stiff, or any movement that questions motives.

Interesting read

Rating:
Summary: Iron Heel bogged down by its own weight
Review: I wonder if the author forsaw the ending, or it just happened as he wrote? I can't say this would do a thing to promote Socialism. If Orwell ("Animal Farm") and London are the friends of Socialism, does the movement really have need of enemies? Clearly "anarchist" is another word for "socialist" as this book progresses, whether or not we consider the real evil to be them or the capitalist. No mater who is evil and underhanded, bombs fall, people are shot and killed. Anyway, the movement totally fails, a thing that the protagonist seems to have foreseen.

Still, the left sees some good in it. London never foresaw a "Dinner Party Revolution," that's for sure. Trotsky gave London great credit for seeing that the "Labor Aristocracy" would not support the prolaterian movement. This may be the best insight that Jack London had. One can see over and over that labor is narrow and short sighted, and the "Labor Brotherhood" is a fiction that does not appear during a strike. Consider the air traffic controllers, after all, the pilots kept flying allowing Regan to deal labor a massive blow.

The book is an important, largely overlooked work, and some like Trotsky consider London a better prophet than the passivists and idealists of the left during London's day, who supposed a logical, rosy ending was soon coming.

Rating:
Summary: Jack London's prophetic 1908 dystopian novel
Review: In 1905 the troops of the Tsar crushed the Russian revolution of 1905. Although the uprising did force Nicholas II to establish a constitution and a parliament, the Russian revolution of 1917 would change the face of the world. However, the uprising also had the interesting effect of inspiring two of the more interesting utopian novels of the early 20th century. One was "Red Star," the socialist utopia on Mars created by the Russian writer Alexander Bogdanov, a Bolshevik and intimate of Lenin. The other was "The Iron Heel," by Jack London, the American author best known for "The Call of the Wild." Whereas Bogdanov forsees the ultimate victory of the socialist and scientific-technical revolutions, London predicts global revolutionary and counter-revolutionary forces ending up in an apocalyptic battle betwen the impoverished workers and the privileged minorities. Consequently, the two authors share a common socialist perspective, although Bogdanov writes a utopian novel and London creates a dystopia.

"The Iron Heel" was written in 1908 and remains one of the more prophetic novels of the 20th century. His track record with regards to a national secret police agency, the rise of Fascism, the creation of attractive suburbs for the middle class while the unemployed and menials live in "ghettoes," is markedly better than that of Edward Belleamy's "Looking Backward," Aldoux Huxley's "Brave New World," or George Orwell's "1984," the novels that are usually lauded and judged by their prescience in terms of utopian literature.

The novel presents the story of the American revolutionary Earnest Everhard, as told by his wife Avis, who is actually the more effective revolutionary leader. London tells how the manuscript was unknown for seven centuries, to be discovered long after the final triumph of socialist democracy in the yar 419 B.O.M. Avis Everhard describes the struggles of the working masses against the oligarchy, and how they were ruthlessly suppressed, especially in the Chicago Commune that is the main setting for the action. There is a strong current of violence, with Black Hundreds wrecking the socialist presses,a bomb exploding in the House of Representatives, and revolutionaries being hunted down by the military arm of the government known as the Iron Heel. The Everhard Manuscript breaks off in the middle of a sentence, a footnote explaining that history does not know if the author escaped or was captured.

The story is somewhat atypical for London in that it does not represent the white supremacist and male dominant vision of the world we usually find in his novels. London's message is the blatant warning that if you allow the Revolution to be defeated, then the ruling class will "grind you revolutionists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces." Ultimately "The Iron Heel" is a novel whose importance clearly outstrips its literary quality. The problem is that with the end of World War II and the defeat (essentially) of Fascism that London's novel was no longer of interest as the world was confronted with a new set of problems. Yet, London's dytopian novel is one of the works in that genre that deserves to be reconsidered more often.

Rating:
Summary: a masterful work
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: a masterful work
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting story envelops rationale of 20th century socialism.
Review: The genres of science fiction, socialist polemics, utopian and anti-utopian novels, and love stories allintersect in Jack London's "The Iron Heel". In the beginning of the story, we meet Eugene Everhard, proponent of classic 20th century socialism. I am not aware of any more easily read statement of the principles of socialism than the first half of this book. It makes clear the theory of surplus profits causing economic collapse. While the theory is fallacious (accumulating inventories would lead to reduced prices and gradually reduced production), the matter has historical interest. We feel the excitement of the socialists in their fervent struggle to build a new and better world. The electorate in California sends Eugene to Congress, but the capitalist Oligarchy becomes alarmed and sends its Mercenaries to arrest and imprison the socialist members of Congress. The socialists go underground. We follow Eugene's wife Avis to a rural hideout. Spies of the Oligarchy are everywhere, yet the socialists have infiltrated their ranks as well. Brave socialists spring Eugene from prison. After a short visit with Avis, he is off to the East Coast to inspire the comrades there. Avis, disguised as an agent of the Oligarchy secret service, arrives in Chicago just as three local Mercenary regiments mutiny. They in turn come under attack from forces loyal to the Oligarchy and are destroyed. The Mercenaries then attack the mutineers' support structure, the workers of Chicago and the impoverished slave underclass. The description of the battle and the destruction of the city rivals the vividness of Chanson de Roland and we are awed. The footnotes convey to us the thoughts of an educated person of the 27th century, hence making a utopian fiction subplot. You will remember the imagery of "The Iron Heel". -- Daniel Brockman, Feb 5 1997

Rating:
Summary: Riveting dystopia from the master storyteller.
Review: This is an obscure work in London's corpus, but I'm not sure why. Probably due to his socialistic politcs. This book was doomed to die in the 1950's, but it has survived.

This tale comes under "speculative fiction," to wit, Mr. London wiriting in 1910's specualtes about the rise of a Captialistic State and the ubermensch who deigns to overthrow it and establish a Communist Regime. CATCH: the story is told from the point of view of the superman's Lois Lane lover. Imagine, a man's man Jack London assuming the voice of a woman! But that is part of the thrill and appeal of this tiny book. He charachterizes the milieu perfectly. You can breathe the air of anticipation in his letters and syntax.

He speculated about a communist revolution in the United states, several years before Red October, and many decades before the Velvet Revolutions of 1989. So he was dead wrong on many things, but he was right in several edge-areas, and these small bulls-eyes kept me going!

He is best in communicating the emotion and anticipation of whous could possibly happen if such a revolution did occur. And I think that is part of the book's charm. Read this along-side "1984," "Brave New World/Brave New World Revisited," and "Brazil." This book will help triangualte your ideas. Then read "The Gulag Archipeligo" for the TRUTH!