The Iron Heel

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.

To understand the full impact of the dystopia it is essential to contextualise the work within a historical framework. Jack London’s novel, The Iron Heel was written during America’s Technological Revolution, or Second Industrial Revolution, a second technological innovation in industries such as steel production, petroleum and electricity. These technological innovations, however, came at human expense and detriment.

In the early twentieth century, the workplace was a dangerous place for the working classes. At the turn of century, life expectancy for the average male was only forty-nine years old. From 1906 to 1907, 526 workers died in “work accidents”; 195 of whom were steelworkers in a single county, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. As a result, a proliferation of socialism occurred across Europe and the United States, an ideology which is unmistakable..