{"id":899,"date":"2025-06-22T11:04:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T15:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/?p=899"},"modified":"2026-02-28T11:16:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T16:16:40","slug":"the-iron-heel-1908","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/the-iron-heel-1908\/","title":{"rendered":"The Iron Heel (1908)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"metaslider-id-890\" style=\"width: 100%;\" class=\"ml-slider-3-100-0 metaslider metaslider-flex metaslider-890 ml-slider ms-theme-default-base has-dots-nav\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Iron Heel\" data-height=\"700\" data-width=\"700\">\n    <div id=\"metaslider_container_890\">\n        <div id=\"metaslider_890\">\n            <ul class='slides'>\n                <li style=\"display: block; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-895 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2025-06-22 10:57:18\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1983\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7774-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"slider-890 slide-895 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_7774\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 77.4609375%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7774-scaled.jpeg 1983w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7774-232x300.jpeg 232w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7774-793x1024.jpeg 793w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7774-768x991.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7774-1190x1536.jpeg 1190w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7774-1586x2048.jpeg 1586w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1983px) 100vw, 1983px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-896 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2025-06-22 10:57:18\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1932\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7775-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"slider-890 slide-896 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_7775\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 75.46875%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7775-scaled.jpeg 1932w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7775-226x300.jpeg 226w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7775-773x1024.jpeg 773w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7775-768x1018.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7775-1159x1536.jpeg 1159w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7775-1545x2048.jpeg 1545w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1932px) 100vw, 1932px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-898 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2025-06-22 10:57:18\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1238\" height=\"1652\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7779.jpeg\" class=\"slider-890 slide-898 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_7779\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 74.939467312349%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7779.jpeg 1238w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7779-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7779-767x1024.jpeg 767w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7779-768x1025.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7779-1151x1536.jpeg 1151w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1238px) 100vw, 1238px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-897 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2025-06-22 10:57:18\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1921\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7778-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"slider-890 slide-897 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_7778\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 75.0390625%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7778-scaled.jpeg 1921w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7778-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7778-769x1024.jpeg 769w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7778-768x1023.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7778-1153x1536.jpeg 1153w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_7778-1537x2048.jpeg 1537w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1921px) 100vw, 1921px\" \/><\/li>\n            <\/ul>\n        <\/div>\n        \n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Title: The Iron Heel<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Author: Jack London<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Publisher: The Macmillian Company, New York<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Estimated year of printing: 1908<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First edition, first printing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My lifelong favorite genre of book to read is dystopian fiction.&nbsp; George Orwell\u2019s <em>Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em> was what pulled me in, and then reinforced with <em>Brave New World<\/em>, <em>Fahrenheit 451<\/em>, and modern examples like the <em>Scythe<\/em> series. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Iron Heel<\/em> is considered the earliest example of the dystopian fiction genre, which influenced and inspired later authors like Orwell.&nbsp; Told through the framing device of a manuscript found long after the events took place, it tells the story of the rise of a socialist movement in the United States which prompts the establishment of a brutal dictatorship in order to avert socialism.&nbsp; Despite inspiring a new genre of book and many classic novels, <em>The Iron Heel<\/em> itself was not well liked by critics at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jack London (1876 &#8211; 1916) is best known for his adventure novels set in the Yukon, <em>Call of the Wild<\/em> and <em>White Fang, <\/em>so a dystopian science fiction book can be a bit of a surprise.&nbsp; However, London\u2019s writing actually cover a large variety of genres and topics \u2014 spanning adventure, science fiction, nonfiction social commentary, government thriller, poetry, and more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Historical context:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being the first example of a dystopian future novel, <em>The Iron Heel<\/em> is considered an important early work of science fiction.&nbsp; H.G. Wells was actively writing his own influential science fiction works at this time, having published <em>The War of the Worlds<\/em> in 1898, and <em>The First Men in the Moon <\/em>in 1901.&nbsp; L. Frank Baum published <em>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em> a few years earlier in 1900, and Arthur Conan Doyle wrote <em>The Lost World <\/em>a few years later in 1912.&nbsp; The Wright brothers conducted their first powered flight in 1903, and 60 years later in 1969 Apollo 11 would land the first men on the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Iron_Heel\" title=\"\">The Iron Heel (Wikipedia)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/digital.lib.usu.edu\/digital\/collection\/jacklondon\/id\/821\" title=\"\">Digitization at Utah State University<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jack_London\" title=\"\">Jack London (Wikipedia)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Acquired June, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first example of my favorite genre of book &#8212; dystopian fiction.  An unexpected novel by Jack London, this book went on to influence classics like Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-highlight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1070,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/1070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}