Title of Presentation/Proposal/Etc.
“Jack London’s Vision of Socialism and Revolution”
Start Date
25-2-2021 8:00 AM
Presentation Type
Faculty Presentation
Abstract
In the Iron Heel (1907), Jack London describes a failed revolution of the working class in 1920s America. Whereas many socialists of the era eagerly expected a successful revolution in their own lifetime, Jack London offered the counter-perspective: three centuries of oligarchic capitalism would precede the emergence of a truly socialist society. The novel details this vision, mainly focusing on the heroic, but doomed, efforts of a few labor organizers in the United States. London’s novel seems to predict more accurately the events of the 20th century than his revolutionary peers. In truth, with the rise of techno-oligarchies and global corporate power, one senses with dread the contemporary rise of an Iron Heel he chronicled in literature a century ago. Reading the Iron Heel, one is left with a grim question: were the evolutionary, revolutionary, and optimistic socialists of all stripes wrong where London was right?
Location
Virtual
“Jack London’s Vision of Socialism and Revolution”
Virtual
In the Iron Heel (1907), Jack London describes a failed revolution of the working class in 1920s America. Whereas many socialists of the era eagerly expected a successful revolution in their own lifetime, Jack London offered the counter-perspective: three centuries of oligarchic capitalism would precede the emergence of a truly socialist society. The novel details this vision, mainly focusing on the heroic, but doomed, efforts of a few labor organizers in the United States. London’s novel seems to predict more accurately the events of the 20th century than his revolutionary peers. In truth, with the rise of techno-oligarchies and global corporate power, one senses with dread the contemporary rise of an Iron Heel he chronicled in literature a century ago. Reading the Iron Heel, one is left with a grim question: were the evolutionary, revolutionary, and optimistic socialists of all stripes wrong where London was right?