- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Rebel inc.; New edition edition (15 Jun 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0862418992
- ISBN-13: 978-0862418991
- Product Dimensions: 19.9 x 13.2 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,242,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Iron Heel
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Product Description
Product Description
Written in 1906, The Iron Heel transcends genre and is an exciting mix of science fiction, social polemic, and a timeless romance, as well as being a typical Jack London action adventure story. But most significantly, it serves as a warning -- unheeded at its time of publication -- which is as relevant today as the time when it was written.
From the Back Cover
The Iron Heel transcends genre, juxtaposing science fiction, social polemic and timeless romance. But most significantly, it serves as a warning - unheeded at its time of publication - which is as relevant today as when it was written.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting, if not always a gripping, read,
By
This review is from: The Iron Heel (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
I took this with me on holiday recently. I cannot conscientiously say that it's the ideal book for the beach, but it was certainly thought provoking. The introduction raised some interesting questions, pointing out that the book is admired by nationalists and racial supremacists as well as by those on the left. And it was the novel's rather problematic ideology which I found the most interesting aspect of `The Iron Heel'.In some ways its concern with the lot of poor workers was of course fully sympathetic, chiming with similar discussions in, for example, Upton Sinclair's `The Jungle'. The measures taken to prevent dissent by the `oligarchy' also aroused sympathy - their persecution of characters such as the narrator's father, a man of great integrity, reminds one of similar actions carried out by Communist and Fascist regimes later in the twentieth century. But the novel seems to promote a ruthless and inhumane approach to putting the world in order which became increasingly uncongenial - the narrator's attitude towards the underclass, in particular, seemed cold and manipulative rather than humanitarian. And although the Oligarchy, within the fiction of the novel, is sinister enough, I can see that its depiction might play well with those on the right who have a paranoid fear of government, resent the apparent hegemony of urban, middle class, professional types with liberal views, and assume that hidden conspiracies are at work everywhere. Yet it's an intriguing book which resonates with all sorts of historical events and movements, including some in our own day.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jack London's prophetic 1908 dystopian novel,
By Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
This review is from: Iron Heel (Hardcover)
In 1905 the troops of the Tsar crushed the Russian revolution of 1905. Although the uprising did force Nicholas II to establish a consitution 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 secrety police agency, the rise of Fascism, the creation of attractive suburbs for the middle class while the unemployed and menials live in "ghettoes," is remarkedly 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 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 supermacist 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.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing but still one of the great dystopias,
By
This review is from: The Iron Heel (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
This is one of the great dystopias and one of the very few pieces of left wing fiction around but it's also a really glaring example of what Orwell said about left wing authors generally being in earnest and less able to write exciting or adventurous fiction.London writes about how first in America and then globally that competition between the monopolies dominating every market in the economy ends and these mega enterprises conspire against the public as oligarchs, joining their power with that of a ruthless police state. The book is presented as a series of diaries discovered in a distant future once the oligarchy has had its day by future historians of a more harmonious (possibly socialist) age. In this respect its very similar to The Handmaiden's Tale. I do think its a great idea for an action novel, there is a serious shortage of decent political fiction available, unless you consider Tom Clancey's patriotic thrillers to be political fiction but in the end this book disappoints. London struggles to try and make a lot of very doctrinaire political points, his archetypical socialistic characters and leaders are, as Orwell put it, like gramophones, lack humanity and in real life would be too dull to be invited to speak to anyone or stir any resistance to tyranny. If you are interested in dystopic fiction consider also 1984, WE, The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven.
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