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London’s socialist temperament leaps from the pages in this 1908 dystopian novel which begins by alerting the reader that the two main characters will, by the end of the story, be executed. In this portrait of the future, the U.S. is ruled by the Brotherhood of Man, an Oligarchy, and revolts amongst the squashed are imminent.
Anonymous
Posted February 20, 2003
When I read this, I was amazed by how much it sounded like our country today. This is a classic dystopian novel. I highly encourage anyone who is interested in the oppression of our so-called democratic economic system.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Pokerpro69
Posted May 12, 2012
Fantastic book Best edition !!!!!!! the other bad review is not for this edition it somehow showed up here but it was made before this book was even published so belongs to another edition of this book not this one!!! I love Jack London and highly recommend this great work!!!!!!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 22, 2012
This is an important book. Written in 1907, it presents a bleak future history account of the rise of corporate totalitarianism in the United States, to be followed three centuries later by a socialist/communist utopia (London was a socialist and a Marxist). George Orwell acknowledged that this book strongly influenced his writing of "1984".
However, this ebook is fatally flawed, lacking critical portions of the original text. "The Iron Heel" is structured as the autobiographical account of the wife of Ernest Everhard, a hero of the socialist resistance to the rise of the capitalistic Oligarchy. Her account of the events of 1907-1932 is recorded in the "Everhard Manuscript", supposedly hidden for centuries and discovered around 2600. The Prologue provides this essential framimg of the story. Furthermore, the text contains numerous footnotes written from the perspective of historians in the future ideal "Brotherhood of Man", London's socialistic vision of an ideal society. Unfortunately, the Prologue and all the notes are simply omitted from this sloppily-constructed ebook. I never complain about OCR errors and the like in ebooks constructed from works in the public domain, but this degree of carelessness is inexcusable. I am virtually certain that whomever prepared this ebook never even read the original book. I don't object to paying a small convenience fee to have public domain works available in the Nook store, as long as the ebook is competently prepared.
If you want to read this work on your Nook, I would highly recommend getting the epub version of the text from Project Gutenberg and copying it onto the Nook from your computer (and consider making a donation to PG while you are at it). I'm not connected with PG in any way.
The whole time im reading it it just felt fake. Every debate in the book was always won by the main character without any challenge as if he were omnipotent. Yes i realize its fiction but it is written as if the socialists are gods and everyone else are portrayed as dumbfounded apes. I am totally against capitalists using political power to oppress people (which is why im an anarcho-capitalist) and this books does an okay job at displaying the wrongness of that but the fact its coming from a socialist view ruins it for me. It just seems that the lack of knowledge of socialist thought known to Jack London makes him give it this pretty picture of individualism but just looking at history refutes that. It isn't written all that well either. Now don't get me wrong it is easy to follow but it just is blehhh majority of the time. Read it just to say youve read it.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 21, 2009
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Posted October 21, 2010
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Posted September 13, 2009
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Posted March 5, 2011
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Overview
London’s socialist temperament leaps from the pages in this 1908 dystopian novel which begins by alerting the reader that the two main characters will, by the end of the story, be executed. In this portrait of the future, the U.S. is ruled by the Brotherhood of Man, an Oligarchy, and revolts amongst the squashed are imminent.