The Iron Heel by Jack London

The book is The Iron Heel by Jack London. It was originally published in 1908 by George Platt Brett Sr. I read the Penguin Classics 2006 paperback edition. I read it in August of 2025. 

The Iron Heel refers to the oppressive government oligarchy in the story.  They are holding down a communist revolution led by the main character Earnest Everhard. 

This was a book club book nominated by my friend Matt. He regrets the nomination because this book sucked. I was excited to read London for the first time but this was a dud. But it won’t keep me from checking out his other work. I still want to read Call of the Wild.  

This book was a piece of propaganda for communism. It’s so hamfisted and preachy it completely ruins the story. It doesn’t even raise interesting questions to consider. It’s just “communism is good and moral and capitalism is evil.” 

This book was completely masturbatory. London is getting off on his own “brilliance.” He casts the main character Ernest Everhard as this perfect person with no flaws. He’s completely right in all of this thinking and everyone else is completely wrong. His critics are all idiots and the girls love him for his physical fitness and his genius. It’s insane. 

The story plays into the worst power politics and oppression ideology. It’s a battle for power between the haves versus the havenots and that’s all there is to it. People are born into certain stations in life and there is no possibility of upward mobility for anyone. The claim is that the only way for improvement for the havenots is through violent force. And the story gets super violent.

It’s written from the perspective of Ernest Everhard’s wife Avis. It’s written like a historical document complete with footnotes to certain historical facts and tidbits. 

My main takeaway was that this story sounded like a religious war. 

“The Revolution took on largely the character of religion. We worshipped at the shrine of the Revolution, which was the shrine of liberty. It was the divine flashing through us. Men and women devoted their lives to the Cause, and newborn babes were sealed to it as of old they had been sealed to the service of God. We were lovers of Humanity.” (p179)

And that’s telling because I believe the fight between Christian conservatism and radical communist leftism is a religious fight. It’s a spiritual war, not even necessarily a cultural or political war. It would be beneficial if we started looking at it that way. This isn’t just a divide between liberal and conservative or Republican and Democrat. It goes beyond that. These radical left lunatics (as Trump calls them) truly want to tear down our civilization. 

Louis CK said the quiet part out loud one time on Rogan. They were talking about illegal immigration and all the serious problems that it has caused in America, and Louis said he was fine with it because we shouldn’t have it so good here in America. He said it wasn’t fair that our country is so prosperous and other countries suck. So just let the scavengers come in and ruin everything. It’s a white guilt thing. It’s about power, in their eyes. Western Civilization has worked and conquered and won in history and now we, the grateful recipients, are supposed to feel bad about it and just let everyone else just steal everything from us. 

That’s really what leftists like Louis CK think about it. There’s no real right and wrong to any issue, there is only power. We have it and they don’t so we’re supposed to just feel bad and bring ourselves down. 

It’s the mindset of a bully. Some fat lazy kid is jealous of the smart kid and instead of trying to better himself through hard work, it’s easier to just beat up the nerdy kid and steal his homework answer, and why not the lunch money while he’s at it. It’s always easier to drag others down than to build yourself up. And that’s exactly what communism and socialism does. It drags everyone down to the same horrible level so that all can be equal. Billionaires shouldn’t exist so let’s all be equally broke. Over and over through history that’s what we see in countries that try communism. When will we ever learn? 

The tone of this book was bleak and hopeless. There are no heroes to emulate or villains to avoid. The characters were all so one-dimensional and boring. No depth or nuance at all. 

I can’t even say London is a good writer after reading this book. It’s just so terrible. I’m holding out hope that Call of the Wild is better. I would not recommend this book to anyone. Not even to someone wanting to get a good picture of the communist mindset. I’d even recommend The Communist Manifesto over The Iron Heel. Truly terrible book.