The Iron Heel
by Jack London · first published 1907
47% recommend53% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Recommended as a prescient political novel about the rise of fascism and oligarchy, often placed alongside Orwell and Sinclair Lewis; readers cite it for its vision of how power consolidates and why it still resonates.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 1970s, the book stresses future changes in society and politics while paying much less attention to technological changes.
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Russia after 1992 made experiment in wealth redistribution within capitalist system restored. The resjlt was devastated economy and creation of oligarchs. Read 'The Iron Heel' by Jack London, this is what happened in Russia when it turned back to capitalism.
on “Challenging the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators” ↗Also Jack London's "The Iron Heel": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Heel
on “George Orwell is out of copyright. What happens now?” ↗"Ecotopia" by: Earnest Callenbach "Self Reliance" by: Ralph Waldo Emerson "The Iron Heel" by: Jack (fuckin) London!
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗…well). His "The Rise of Pseudo Fascism"[3] and "Rush, Newspeak, and Fascism"[4] are good summaries of his work. Also related are Sinclair Lewis' 1935 "It Can't Happen Here"[5] and Jack London's 1908 "The Iron Heel"[6]. [1] - https://interglacial.com/pub/text/Umberto_Eco_-_Eternal_Fasc... [2] - http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/ [3] - https://dneiwert.blogspot.com/The%20Rise%20Of%20Pseudo%20Fas... [4] - http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/Rush%20Newspeak%20%20Fascism.pd...…
on “Umberto Eco: Ur-Fascism (1995) [pdf]” ↗…now? Before 1948? If you wouldn't mind, please enumerate those "substantial" things and tell us who did them all better, before Orwell. We could always cite the classic Brave New World but how about The Iron Heel by Jack London which perfectly predicted the rise of fascism. So many better takes out there.
on “Orwell: The Rewrite” ↗"White Fang" and "Call of the Wild" are Jack London's best known novels, not his best novels IMHO. I prefer "Martin Eden" and "the Iron Heel", and am a bit mystified as to how his entire literary career has been boiled down to two dog books. "Martin Eden" is about a mixed class relationship, with a wealthier woman becoming involved with a…
on “Gold Fever Cold and the True Adventures of Jack London in the Wild” ↗In the same vein, his It Can't Happen Here is also well worth reading, as is Jack London's The Iron Heel. The more things change the more they stay the same.
on “America, 1926: What a Forgotten 100-Year-Old Report Says About Who We Are” ↗…en-masse (as opposed to a token example here and there) the financiers and corporate executives you speak of, there's likely to be bloody opposition. I'm reminded of a passage from Jack London's The Iron Heel[1], about a war between the working class and the ruling class, in which the latter answer a threat with these words: "This, then, is our answer. We have no words to waste on you. When you reach out…
on “For Years WallStreet Spent More on Buybacks Than It Earned-Now They Want Bailout” ↗This reminds me of a passage from Jack London's The Iron Heel[1], in which the protagonist tells a man who owned the Sierra Mills about an injured worker: "He lost his arm in the Sierra Mills, and like a broken-down horse you turned him out on the highway to die.…
on “Tesla workers: To hell and back again” ↗…merchants, and/or the politicians—author says many were all 3) would likely respond to an event (including disease) so as to preserve their own position and then claim that as moral and scientific: In The Iron Heel, referring to owners of northern factories with child labor and other ghastly working conditions, Jack London wrote, “When they want to do a thing, in business of course, they must wait till there arises…
on “The Sick Society” ↗This reminds me of a scene from Jack London's The Iron Heel[1]: "He lost his arm in the Sierra Mills, and like a broken-down horse you turned him out on the highway to die. When I say 'you,' I mean the superintendent and the officials that you and the other stockholders…
on “Severely injured worker sues Tesla” ↗More apropos to this age is not the political climate in which Sinclair's "The Jungle" led to pro-consumer reforms, but rather Jack London's "The Iron Heel"[1], wherein when challenged, one of the captains of industry spoke these prophetic words: "This, then, is our answer. We have no words to waste on you. When you reach out your vaunted strong hands for…
on “Facebook moderators break NDAs to expose working conditions” ↗…translations. The book definitely had a stronger impact for me as the first time I read it, right as I was at the critical point of the work, the atrocities of Tiananmen happened. I have not yet read The Iron Heel by London but that is on my short list.
on “We (Novel)” ↗…- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism which was what influenced Jack London's thinking (see "The Call of the Wild", "White Fang" etc.) but at the same time he was also a Socialist (see "The Iron Heel", "The People of the Abyss" etc.) See his "views" section here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London#Views
on “The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray” ↗…against the dangers of performative economics once machines surpass human productivity or take any meaningful action to implement UBI before it's too late. So on the current timeline, subjugation under an Iron Heel in the style of Jack London feels inevitable.
on “An Economy of AI Agents” ↗