Introduction Summary

Written in the early years of the twentieth century, The Iron Heel takes certain circumstances of the time, anchored in the tension between socialism and capitalism, and posits a two tiered future - a more immediate future of socialist revolution, and a centuries-distant, near-Utopian future in which that revolution has finally succeeded. In addition to exploring themes relating to the aforementioned tension, the book also explores the universality of human existence and one of that universality's manifestations - the belief in, and clinging to, self-righteousness as a form of self-preservation.

Introduction - The introduction is a real-world element of the book, a commentary by a contemporary authority (H. Bruce Franklin) on the origins and intentions of The Iron Heel and its author, socialist writer Jack London. He writes of what he portrays as the remarkable accuracy of London's futuristic vision and defines the...