Jack London was a great man. The Iron Heel is the coming future of America. Back during the prime of the US, The Iron Heel book was removed from all libraries.
Really good video. Appreciate your thoroughness. I'm of the minority opinion that Iron Heel is superior to the dystopian classics that followed it. It's also more immediately relevant - the politics are a little didactic, but they leap right off the page at you. I'm much less worried about surveillance than I am about corporate capture of the state. It's amazing how London manages to write prose that's basically pamphlet polemic and still make it narratively compelling.
Jack London being a student of Socialism, was also a critic of Socialism. You must read between the lines to recognize his concerns. If you will, reference the Foreword in The Iron Heel. Jack London was a man of the north. Being a man of the north, we was motivated by gold, wealth, and prestige. He was a man of his times, an eye for the future, tempered by a first-hand knowledge and experience. The condition of man makes socialism a dream, not necessarily a reality. Socialism is an evolution, not a revolution. "All media invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values." - Marshall McLuhan "It's an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem." - Douglas Adams "The map is not the territory." - Alfred Korzbski "Laissez faire (in its true full meaning) opens the way to the realization of the noble dreams of Socialism. - Henry George
Great read! Definitely not talked about enough and the ending was fantastic. Ill be rereading it again and appreciate the extra info that happen in WV, history I never heard of before. Thanks for the video!
I like the part where the protagonist talk to small farmer and small business owner and he tell them: 1 you are complaining about the oligarchs because they are making profit of your back, but yet you are making profits on the back of workers. 2 you are against the oligarchs, yet you agree that they are more efficient then you are in making and distributing products. 3 by trying to break down those oligarchy without attacking capitalism you act like machine destroyer, at best if you succeed you are going make us go backward, that means less production therefore more hardship for the middle and working class. 4 there is no going back to the good old time, you can join us and fight the capitalist as equals or be crush by Iron heel. I really like how he expose them to their own contradictions and at the same time give them the opportunity to join them.
Very true - Marx can be a bit of a rough night if you waited until the final day to read it for your political science course. Not that I am speaking from experience or anything.... :)
Marxist theory is just that, theory. The Iron Heel is, I believe, a love story. The story could have been written from a reversed economics perspective. If you will, reference The Foreword of The Iron Heel. Jack London, as much as he was a student of Socialism, was also a critic. What are we to think of the phrase "Rotten Ripe".
My freedom of speech class had me read a banned book, I read carrie. 2 years later I took a class on demand books, but ended up dropping the class a few weeks in just as we were starting this book. Over the past 24 hours I listen to the last three quarters of the book, a good read/listen. The last class I went to involving the iron heel, we went over the background of the book. The interesting thing that the teacher brought up was this was banned by the postmaster general, who is just some guy, not really somebody that should have been in charge of banning a book, but here we are talking about this previously suppressed book. I wish I had had the time to continue with the class, but I was taking his other class at the time and he was a very demanding teacher, I still often think about him. I received one of my worst grades out of the first of two papers for his class. I had read piles of books, had fallen asleep in the library between shelf stacks and was given a d minus for my effort. I thought I had done an okay job, but I was writing nothing substantive, he was completely right to give me that grade and it changed the way I saw my writing afterwards. My condemnation of trite, saccharin, and/or empty headed fluff of writing was very developed in this class. I don't think I could have handled a secondary class of his, but it always bothered me and never got to this. 10 years on out of school and I finally did it :). Another interesting dystopian book around that time. Came out of russia, called We. Tl;Dr I finally got to read this over the past day and I'm happy that I did.
Thanks, interesting critique. I also found your asides about Helen Keller and the struggle of the Virginia miners with the coal barons very interesting. We've had similar history here in Canada and are now experiencing a resurgence of police violence against environmental activists, especially brutal attacks on indigenous folks defending their sovereign territories from destructive mines, rapacious logging practices and oil pipeline construction. The Iron Heel is here and now if you get in the way of the oligarchs.
This book made me seriously consider socialist theory when I hadn’t before. I first encountered it as an audiobook narrator and it has haunted me ever since. It’s visceral and horrifying. (My version is on Audible, narrated by Jacques Richey) if you want to check it out. Not sure I’d count it as science fiction though, more strictly as political theory dystopia. I don’t see any soft sci-fi elements in it or technologies at play, even in the Brotherhood of Man era of the future
4:00 They did the same to George Orwell to the point that some Socialists still sadly drag him due to Soviet propaganda against him and CIA propaganda that co-opted his writing to bolster their own anti-Soviet narrative. He was really an anti-Stalinist Socialist. He had been part of the POUM, an armed Marxist militia during the Spanish Civil War, but the POUM was open to "Marxists" including apologists of Stalin, which lead to much of his frustrations that would push him to write Animal Farm.
Jack was a self taught intellectual giant. Just look around the world to see the self centred oligarchs who currently hold power and how they treat the working class.
I wish there was an English speaking film adaptation of this book. Unfortunate as this book started the dystopia genre. I know of two Russian films and a play based on this book.
Thank you for this review. I started reading this not knowing much but that it was a dystopian and by I writer that I have enjoyed in the past. I’m about 100 pages in and haven’t gotten to the “meat” of the actual plot and am reading his socialist ideals and eye rolling about Mrs. Everheart’s hero worship of him. I’m hoping it will be getting better…
I wanted to ask your opinion on the framing of, "the artist" operating within the Iron Heel. The sort of proliferation of art (I can't remember the chapter in which London writes about these 'artists' and their place within society under the plutocrats....) and what London was trying to say. Artists as mystifiers/charlatans?
I really enjoy the framing device of The Iron Heel, including the future arts and such. London wants to tell the story of how socialism triumphed no matter the odds. One of those ways is to show how long it has lasted after it took. I had a HG English teacher who drilled our minds for years one simple point - the structure supports the meaning. Everything the writer does is done with the point of highlighting the story, and London is a classic example of that in action
Reviews of this seem to vary WILDLY. Compare these reviews: "Described by many as the first of the modern dystopian novels" "This is an important book. It's so important that the editors of the German Wiktionary site decided to use a quote from the book for the entry" "Jack London wrote a dystopia! Did you know that? I didn't! It is terrible." "The first 75% is pure political screed. And not very well scrode, either; it's hysterically and ineptly scridden. Jack London was a socialist, and this book makes socialism look bad through its sheer incompetence. (By the way, that Lincoln quote didn't happen.) The fact that I happen to agree with the basic ideas here doesn't make the book any less boring." "The Iron Heel is said to have been a great influence on later dystopian fiction, but London's book is completely lacking the subtlety and skill of Orwell, Huxley, or Burgess. Where the latter authors tell carefully crafted fables, London relies on heavy handed, exhausting, and apparently plagiarized polemics." ".. this book is much more akin to Rand's Atlas Shrugged than Orwell's 1984. At least Rand's tome managed to engage the reader before embarking on endless and monotone pontifications. London doesn't bother here. The first hundred pages of this novels are exclusively avenues for London's sermonizing." "This book illustrates that just because you like some of a writers work it doesn't mean you'll like it all." "I take issue with London’s politics, I’m even more disappointed with the poor writing." "George Orwell commented that the prophecies of this book turned out to be more true than either The Shape of Things To Come or Brave New World. He was correct!" "I give this book 5 of 5 stars for being revolutionary, in more ways than one. When it was written, I think the closest there was to the dystopian genre was H.G. Well's Time Machine. " This book is so divisive that its almost fascinating. Is it worth a read?
@@theworstthingaboutnewbooks6006 As a UK kid I was an idealist and rather a supporter of socialist ideas. As I got older I have seen the sensible, moderate, left leaning people turn into ultra politically-correct crazies. Therefore I have become conservative. Thing is though I do like to hear both sides so I think I should try it.
You get a major historical aspect wrong, Allende was not assasinated by the CIA. Allende was an extreme communist, he was elected in Chile with only 33% of the vote, he was widely opposed and refused any political compromises to the Chilean congress who eventually requested the military oust him. Allende killed himself rather than be captured by Chilean soldiers during the 1973 coup (after the army offered him a plane to exile) The CIA was not involved in this
Get out of here with that BS. I'm sure you can explain away all the rest of Alan Dulles and every other imperialist psychopath's activities in Latin America, the Caribbean, the middle east, Congo, Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, etc. Gross.
TheWorstThingAboutNewBooks and so glad you mentioned the mine war. did you read storming heaven before, it’s a good militant working class literature, and now is adopted into a musical
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Jack London was a great man. The Iron Heel is the coming future of America. Back during the prime of the US, The Iron Heel book was removed from all libraries.
Cool!
I had no idea Jack London wrote anything like this. Thank you
Sure thing!
Really good video. Appreciate your thoroughness. I'm of the minority opinion that Iron Heel is superior to the dystopian classics that followed it. It's also more immediately relevant - the politics are a little didactic, but they leap right off the page at you. I'm much less worried about surveillance than I am about corporate capture of the state. It's amazing how London manages to write prose that's basically pamphlet polemic and still make it narratively compelling.
Thank you for creating this video. I haven't read this very early dystopian novel, but now I know why it is so important and influential.
Glad that you like it, thanks!
Jack London being a student of Socialism, was also a critic of Socialism. You must read between the lines to recognize his concerns. If you will, reference the Foreword in The Iron Heel. Jack London was a man of the north. Being a man of the north, we was motivated by gold, wealth, and prestige. He was a man of his times, an eye for the future, tempered by a first-hand knowledge and experience. The condition of man makes socialism a dream, not necessarily a reality. Socialism is an evolution, not a revolution.
"All media invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values." - Marshall McLuhan
"It's an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem." - Douglas Adams
"The map is not the territory." - Alfred Korzbski
"Laissez faire (in its true full meaning) opens the way to the realization of the noble dreams of Socialism. - Henry George
Great read! Definitely not talked about enough and the ending was fantastic. Ill be rereading it again and appreciate the extra info that happen in WV, history I never heard of before. Thanks for the video!
Sure thing!
I like the part where the protagonist talk to small farmer and small business owner and he tell them:
1 you are complaining about the oligarchs because they are making profit of your back, but yet you are making profits on the back of workers.
2 you are against the oligarchs, yet you agree that they are more efficient then you are in making and distributing products.
3 by trying to break down those oligarchy without attacking capitalism you act like machine destroyer, at best if you succeed you are going make us go backward, that means less production therefore more hardship for the middle and working class.
4 there is no going back to the good old time, you can join us and fight the capitalist as equals or be crush by Iron heel.
I really like how he expose them to their own contradictions and at the same time give them the opportunity to join them.
True! Good points!
You make a good point and it speaks volumes now especially but I dont think socialism is ever the way to go. Maybe a mixed economy.
@@berniekatzroy Sure thing!
@@theworstthingaboutnewbooks6006 thanks
@@berniekatzroy Sure thing!!!!!
The Iron Heel is among the best treatises on Marxist theory there was. Infinitely more readable than Marx himself.
Very true - Marx can be a bit of a rough night if you waited until the final day to read it for your political science course. Not that I am speaking from experience or anything.... :)
Marxist theory is just that, theory. The Iron Heel is, I believe, a love story. The story could have been written from a reversed economics perspective. If you will, reference The Foreword of The Iron Heel. Jack London, as much as he was a student of Socialism, was also a critic. What are we to think of the phrase "Rotten Ripe".
My freedom of speech class had me read a banned book, I read carrie. 2 years later I took a class on demand books, but ended up dropping the class a few weeks in just as we were starting this book.
Over the past 24 hours I listen to the last three quarters of the book, a good read/listen. The last class I went to involving the iron heel, we went over the background of the book.
The interesting thing that the teacher brought up was this was banned by the postmaster general, who is just some guy, not really somebody that should have been in charge of banning a book, but here we are talking about this previously suppressed book.
I wish I had had the time to continue with the class, but I was taking his other class at the time and he was a very demanding teacher, I still often think about him. I received one of my worst grades out of the first of two papers for his class. I had read piles of books, had fallen asleep in the library between shelf stacks and was given a d minus for my effort.
I thought I had done an okay job, but I was writing nothing substantive, he was completely right to give me that grade and it changed the way I saw my writing afterwards. My condemnation of trite, saccharin, and/or empty headed fluff of writing was very developed in this class. I don't think I could have handled a secondary class of his, but it always bothered me and never got to this. 10 years on out of school and I finally did it :).
Another interesting dystopian book around that time. Came out of russia, called We.
Tl;Dr
I finally got to read this over the past day and I'm happy that I did.
Cool thanks for sharing!!!
Super interesting wv history lesson. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@theworstthingaboutnewbooks6006 👍
Thanks, interesting critique. I also found your asides about Helen Keller and the struggle of the Virginia miners with the coal barons very interesting. We've had similar history here in Canada and are now experiencing a resurgence of police violence against environmental activists, especially brutal attacks on indigenous folks defending their sovereign territories from destructive mines, rapacious logging practices and oil pipeline construction. The Iron Heel is here and now if you get in the way of the oligarchs.
Yup! Thanks for your kind thoughts and comments about Canada.
This book made me seriously consider socialist theory when I hadn’t before. I first encountered it as an audiobook narrator and it has haunted me ever since. It’s visceral and horrifying. (My version is on Audible, narrated by Jacques Richey) if you want to check it out. Not sure I’d count it as science fiction though, more strictly as political theory dystopia. I don’t see any soft sci-fi elements in it or technologies at play, even in the Brotherhood of Man era of the future
That's awesome! Jack London would approve.
Awesome man. Thanks for the historical evidence!
Sure thing, glad you liked it!
4:00 They did the same to George Orwell to the point that some Socialists still sadly drag him due to Soviet propaganda against him and CIA propaganda that co-opted his writing to bolster their own anti-Soviet narrative. He was really an anti-Stalinist Socialist. He had been part of the POUM, an armed Marxist militia during the Spanish Civil War, but the POUM was open to "Marxists" including apologists of Stalin, which lead to much of his frustrations that would push him to write Animal Farm.
Jack was a self taught intellectual giant. Just look around the world to see the self centred oligarchs who currently hold power and how they treat the working class.
Thanks!!!
I wish there was an English speaking film adaptation of this book. Unfortunate as this book started the dystopia genre. I know of two Russian films and a play based on this book.
That's cool! I agree that would be welcome...
I think I've seen one of your works before....I cannot recall which one it was though.
Gonna go read it now. Thanks.
Sure thing!
I(ve read the French translation of this book years ago. Great book indeed, from a great writer.
Yeah, I hear ya. Dude's good! I'll be looking at another London book here soon, although it's more of a long short story or short novella.
Very glad you remind me Helen Keller : beautiful and great human being, my heroin since my early years.
Hello; thanks for commenting! I'm glad you enjoyed the Helen Keller comparison. She's great!
Also a fake
Thank you for this review. I started reading this not knowing much but that it was a dystopian and by I writer that I have enjoyed in the past. I’m about 100 pages in and haven’t gotten to the “meat” of the actual plot and am reading his socialist ideals and eye rolling about Mrs. Everheart’s hero worship of him. I’m hoping it will be getting better…
Yeah, that reminds me of Mary Shelley's The Last Man. She takes a while to get to the plot.
I wanted a recap of the book, I got a historical lesson.
awesome
Glad that you like it!!
I wanted to ask your opinion on the framing of, "the artist" operating within the Iron Heel. The sort of proliferation of art (I can't remember the chapter in which London writes about these 'artists' and their place within society under the plutocrats....) and what London was trying to say. Artists as mystifiers/charlatans?
I really enjoy the framing device of The Iron Heel, including the future arts and such. London wants to tell the story of how socialism triumphed no matter the odds. One of those ways is to show how long it has lasted after it took. I had a HG English teacher who drilled our minds for years one simple point - the structure supports the meaning. Everything the writer does is done with the point of highlighting the story, and London is a classic example of that in action
Well done
Thanks for your kind words!!!
I see the Three Kingdoms back there
Good eye! I read the whole thing!
Might is right by Redbeard aka London waayyy better.
Hello! Thanks for responding! I'm not sure I agree, but hey, thanks for letting me know!
John galt died of a STD , dagney was a loose woman
Science fiction?!!! This book is a brilliant screed against the reality of contemporary America!!! It should be required reading.
I get why you would think that since it was so influential from 1984 on down.
Good book. Bad hat.
Glad you enjoy the book. And i know you secretly like the hat too :)
Reviews of this seem to vary WILDLY. Compare these reviews:
"Described by many as the first of the modern dystopian novels"
"This is an important book. It's so important that the editors of the German Wiktionary site decided to use a quote from the book for the entry"
"Jack London wrote a dystopia! Did you know that? I didn't! It is terrible."
"The first 75% is pure political screed. And not very well scrode, either; it's hysterically and ineptly scridden. Jack London was a socialist, and this book makes socialism look bad through its sheer incompetence. (By the way, that Lincoln quote didn't happen.) The fact that I happen to agree with the basic ideas here doesn't make the book any less boring."
"The Iron Heel is said to have been a great influence on later dystopian fiction, but London's book is completely lacking the subtlety and skill of Orwell, Huxley, or Burgess. Where the latter authors tell carefully crafted fables, London relies on heavy handed, exhausting, and apparently plagiarized polemics."
".. this book is much more akin to Rand's Atlas Shrugged than Orwell's 1984. At least Rand's tome managed to engage the reader before embarking on endless and monotone pontifications. London doesn't bother here. The first hundred pages of this novels are exclusively avenues for London's sermonizing."
"This book illustrates that just because you like some of a writers work it doesn't mean you'll like it all."
"I take issue with London’s politics, I’m even more disappointed with the poor writing."
"George Orwell commented that the prophecies of this book turned out to be more true than either The Shape of Things To Come or Brave New World. He was correct!"
"I give this book 5 of 5 stars for being revolutionary, in more ways than one. When it was written, I think the closest there was to the dystopian genre was H.G. Well's Time Machine. "
This book is so divisive that its almost fascinating. Is it worth a read?
I think so! But hey, there you go!
@@theworstthingaboutnewbooks6006 As a UK kid I was an idealist and rather a supporter of socialist ideas. As I got older I have seen the sensible, moderate, left leaning people turn into ultra politically-correct crazies. Therefore I have become conservative. Thing is though I do like to hear both sides so I think I should try it.
@@DamienNeverwinter Sounds good to me,love the context, thanks!
You get a major historical aspect wrong, Allende was not assasinated by the CIA. Allende was an extreme communist, he was elected in Chile with only 33% of the vote, he was widely opposed and refused any political compromises to the Chilean congress who eventually requested the military oust him. Allende killed himself rather than be captured by Chilean soldiers during the 1973 coup (after the army offered him a plane to exile)
The CIA was not involved in this
Hilarious 😂
Get out of here with that BS. I'm sure you can explain away all the rest of Alan Dulles and every other imperialist psychopath's activities in Latin America, the Caribbean, the middle east, Congo, Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, etc.
Gross.
Wow! You're quite the science fiction writer yourself! Or more of a fantasy writer...
Every things about jack London are good for me, but not all to my girl comrade... he is toooo brocialism sometimes, kinda like Hemingway
Yup! The thing to know about London is that he's ahead of his time in some ways, but frustratingly a man of his time in others.
TheWorstThingAboutNewBooks and so glad you mentioned the mine war. did you read storming heaven before, it’s a good militant working class literature, and now is adopted into a musical
@@kxx139 I have not read it, actually! Happy to do so!
I was interested up untill you said he was a socialist.
That's cool!
Such an open minded slave
@@makut4154 tell the 200 million dead Russians that.
Tell me that you have never read the book without telling me that you have never read the book.
@@johndyer5541 telling me your all politically naive without telling me your politically naive.