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Jack London's The Iron Heel (1907) - the oligarchy has not changed
From Dick Eastman
May 11, 2012
You can get a doctorate in sociology from any Ivy League School and still not understand American society today as well as Jack London already knew it in 1907.
If I was teaching a history of the United States or a sociological study of American society I would begin with this book - and perhaps end with it.
So accurate it is very depressing. All of this was seen by a great and famous writer back in 1907 yet today people throw away the best years of their lives trying to penetrate the wall of Oligarchy propaganda.
So descriptive of our times and the futility of our situation under the "iron heel" - read and weep and marvel that Jack London understood all of this and yet this book is virtually unknown to the American people - while Catcher in the Rye is still being forced on today's college students. Our colleges are exactly what London told us they are. Every fact of our times vindicates the message of this book.
In 1943, during World War II, they were making movies about great Americans. Jack London had a "Liberty Ship" named after him and they made a movie about his life. You can watch it here http://www.youtube/SWxx_95Hdgw - but notice that in the beginning of the movie they show a line of Jack London's books. They are all there -- White Fang, The Star Rover, Call of the Wild, South Sea Tales and all of the others EXCEPT ONE - you will not see The Iron Heel among those books. Listen to these excepts and you will know why.