The Iron Heel. Jack London

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The Iron Heel - Jack London


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       Jack London

      The Iron Heel

      The Pioneer Dystopian Novel that Predicted the Rise of Fascism

      Published by

      Books

      - Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -

       [email protected]

      2017 OK Publishing

      ISBN 978-80-272-2539-2

      Table of Contents

       Foreword

       Chapter I. My Eagle

       Chapter II. Challenges

       Chapter III. Jackson’s Arm

       Chapter IV. Slaves of the Machine

       Chapter V. The Philomaths

       Chapter VI. Adumbrations

       Chapter VII. The Bishop’s Vision

       Chapter VIII. The Machine Breakers

       Chapter IX. The Mathematics of a Dream

       Chapter X. The Vortex

       Chapter XI. The Great Adventure

       Chapter XII. The Bishop

       Chapter XIII. The General Strike

       Chapter XIV. The Beginning of the End

       Chapter XV. Last Days

       Chapter XVI. The End

       Chapter XVII. The Scarlet Livery

       Chapter XVIII. In the Shadow of Sonoma

       Chapter XIX. Transformation

       Chapter XX. A Lost Oligarch

       Chapter XXI. The Roaring Abysmal Beast

       Chapter XXII. The Chicago Commune

       Chapter XXIII. The People of the Abyss

       Chapter XXIV. Nightmare

       Chapter XXV. The Terrorists

      “At first, this Earth, a stage so gloomed with woe

       You almost sicken at the shifting of the scenes.

       And yet be patient. Our Playwright may show

       In some fifth act what this Wild Drama means.”

      Foreword

       Table of Contents

      It cannot be said that the Everhard Manuscript is an important historical document. To the historian it bristles with errors—not errors of fact, but errors of interpretation. Looking back across the seven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed her manuscript, events, and the bearings of events, that were confused and veiled to her, are clear to us. She lacked perspective. She was too close to the events she writes about. Nay, she was merged in the events she has described.

      Nevertheless, as a personal document, the Everhard Manuscript is of inestimable value. But here again enter error of perspective, and vitiation due to the bias of love. Yet we smile, indeed, and forgive Avis Everhard for the heroic lines upon which she modelled her husband. We know to-day that he was not so colossal, and that he loomed among the events of his times less largely than the Manuscript would lead us to believe.

      We know that Ernest Everhard was an exceptionally strong man, but not so exceptional as his wife thought him to be. He was, after all, but one of a large number of heroes who, throughout the world, devoted their lives to the Revolution; though it must be conceded that he did unusual work, especially in his elaboration and interpretation of working-class philosophy. “Proletarian science” and “proletarian philosophy” were his phrases for it, and therein he shows the provincialism of his mind—a defect, however, that was due to the times and that none in that day could escape.

      But to return to the Manuscript. Especially valuable is it in communicating to us the FEEL of those terrible times. Nowhere do we find more vividly portrayed the psychology of the persons that lived in that turbulent period embraced between the years 1912 and 1932—their mistakes and ignorance, their doubts and fears and misapprehensions, their ethical delusions, their violent passions, their inconceivable sordidness and selfishness. These are the things that are so hard for us of this enlightened age to understand. History tells us that these things were, and biology and psychology tell us why they were; but history and biology and psychology do not make these things alive. We accept them as facts, but we are left without sympathetic comprehension of them.

      This sympathy comes to us, however, as we peruse the Everhard Manuscript. We enter into the minds of the actors in that long-ago world-drama, and for the time being their mental processes are our mental processes. Not alone do we understand Avis Everhard’s love for her hero-husband, but we feel, as he felt, in those first days, the vague and terrible loom of the Oligarchy. The Iron Heel (well named) we feel descending upon and crushing mankind.

      And in passing we note that that historic phrase, the Iron Heel, originated in Ernest Everhard’s mind. This, we may say, is the one moot question that this new-found document clears up. Previous to this, the earliest-known use of the phrase occurred in the pamphlet, “Ye Slaves,” written by George Milford and published in December, 1912. This George Milford was an obscure agitator about whom nothing is known, save the one additional bit of information gained from the Manuscript, which mentions that he was shot in the Chicago Commune. Evidently he had heard Ernest Everhard make use of the phrase in some public


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