"The Iron Heel" by Jack London, summary

The social science fiction novel "The Iron Heel" was written in 1908. This dystopian book takes the form of a manuscript by Avis Everhard discovered seven centuries later. The text is annotated by historian Anthony Meredith in the year 419 of the Brotherhood of Man. The narrative spans the period 1912–1932 and depicts the degeneration of American capitalism into a totalitarian oligarchic dictatorship.

The emergence of Ernest Everhard and the break with the church

In February 1912, Avis, the daughter of physics professor John Cunningham, met socialist philosopher Ernest Everhard at a dinner party in Berkeley. The former blacksmith openly criticized the clergy present, accusing Dr. Hammerfield and Dr. Ballingford of metaphysical speculation divorced from reality. Ernest argued that church institutions served the interests of the ruling class, which provided them with the means to survive.

Bishop Morehouse interrogates the young agitator about class struggle. Ernest explains the irreconcilability of the interests of capital and labor. Entrepreneurs’ profits and wages are formed from a single produced value, the division of which is a struggle. He cites examples of exploitation: child labor in Southern textile mills and the ninety-cent weekly wage of seamstresses in Chicago. A shocked Morehouse, along with Avis, accepts Everhard’s challenge to see the underbelly of the industrial world.

Industrial injuries and the morale of the masters

Avis takes on the case of a worker named Jackson. He lost his left arm at the Sierra Mills factory while trying to save an expensive piece of machinery from breaking during an overtime shift. The company refused to compensate the cripple and threw him out onto the street. After reviewing the lawsuit, Avis discovers that the company’s lawyer, Colonel Engram, intimidated the plaintiff, and Judge Caldwell acted in the interests of the corporation.

Master Peter Donnelly and former student James Smith confess to Avis that they perjured themselves in court. They concealed the truth out of fear of losing their jobs and depriving their families of food. Avis’s attempts to publish an objective article in the newspapers are thwarted by publisher censorship. Large shareholders Mrs. Wickson and Mrs. Pertonwaite refuse to help the crippled man, claiming that paying benefits will teach the poor to be careless. Avis realizes that the comforts of the rich are watered by the blood of the oppressed.

A speech to Philomaths and the collapse of small businesses

Everhard speaks at the elite Philomath Club in the Pertonwaite mansion. He portrays the spiritual insignificance of the elite, who amass fortunes through fraud, counterfeit products, and child exploitation. The speaker points to the growth of the revolutionary army of the proletariat, numbering 25 million worldwide. He accuses capitalists of bankruptcy: despite a thousandfold increase in labor productivity, 15 million Americans are destitute.

The renowned lawyer Van Gilbert attempts to ridicule socialism, but Ernest uses scientific facts to demolish his arguments. The oligarch Wixon discards his pretense. He openly declares that capital will retain power by force of arms: "In the roar of shells, in the whine of grapeshot, and the rattle of machine guns, you will hear our answer. As for you, revolutionaries, we will crush you under our heels; we will trample you into the ground." Ernest accepts the challenge, warning of the inevitability of armed resistance.

At Professor Cunningham’s dinner, Ernest meets with representatives of the petty bourgeoisie — grocer Owen, pharmacist Kowalt, quarry owner Asmunsen, and farmer Calvin. The guests demand the abolition of the trusts. Everhard compares them to the English machine-wreckers of the 18th century. He explains the mathematical inevitability of capitalism’s collapse: workers receive only a fraction of the value of the goods they create as wages and cannot buy back the entire product. The resulting surpluses lead to overseas expansion, but as industrialization continues throughout the world, these markets will disappear. He points out that small business is caught between big capital and the proletariat. Furthermore, Ernest reveals the existence of a 1903 law authorizing the forced conscription of citizens into the National Guard and the court-martial of those who refuse.

The onset of oligarchy and persecution

The oligarchy takes action. Rector Wilcox offers Professor Cunningham a two-year assignment in Europe in exchange for his abandonment of the radicals. After refusing, Cunningham is fired from the university for his book "Economics and Education." Soon, the book’s printing matrices are destroyed, and the printing press in Kansas is burned by the Black Hundreds — riot gangs created by big business. Cunningham’s stock is confiscated, and his house is repossessed using a forged mortgage. The professor and Avis move to a modest apartment in a working-class neighborhood of San Francisco. Avis and Ernest marry.

Bishop Morehouse, who attempted to embody Christian principles by providing shelter to homeless women, was declared insane and committed to a mental hospital. Upon his release, he sold all his possessions, used the money to buy food for the starving, and went into hiding as a simple laborer. Soon, the authorities caught him again and locked him up in a mental hospital.

The Iron Heel brutally suppresses strikes by streetcar drivers, teamsters, and mechanics. Oligarchs ruin farmers through debt traps, price manipulation, and legal foreclosures. Millions of farmers are deprived of their land and turned into farm laborers. The press finally comes under the control of the trusts after the financial collapse of the Hearst newspaper empire.

The breakdown of the war, the split of the labor movement and provocation in Congress

In late 1912, the oligarchy attempted to start a war with Germany to sell surplus goods and distract the people from the revolution. The Socialist International responded with a general strike. In the United States and Germany, all economic activity came to a standstill for a week. Governments were forced to abandon their military plans. Subsequently, German workers overthrew the Kaiser and established a socialist state.

Having learned the lesson of the General Strike, the Iron Heel changes its tactics. It bribes skilled trade unions — railroad workers, mechanics, and metalworkers. They receive sharp wage increases, shorter workdays, and comfortable housing. These unions become closed castes that have betrayed class solidarity. The remaining mass of workers sinks to the bottom, becoming disenfranchised inhabitants of the abyss. O’Connor, chairman of the mechanics’ union, openly admits to abandoning the interests of the working class.

In the fall of 1912, Ernest was elected to the U.S. Congress. In the spring of 1913, 50 Socialist members of parliament took seats in the Capitol. However, this political victory proved illusory. Representatives of the Farmers’ Party, having won 12 states, were barred from power. Attempts at protest were drowned in blood: mercenaries killed 11,000 people in Sacramento.

Ernest delivers a scathing speech in Congress, accusing the deputies of subservience to the oligarchy. At that moment, a bomb falls right at his feet. The explosion turns out to be a provocation orchestrated by the authorities themselves to crack down on the opposition. Ernest and all the Socialist deputies are arrested. Avis is sentenced to six months in prison.

Underground war and shelter organization

After being released from prison, Avis changed her name to Felicia Van Verdigan and, disguised as a wealthy woman, fled to California. In the Sonoma County mountains, in the Wixon deer preserve, she set up a secret hideout in a deep ravine. In 1915, the revolutionary underground organized the simultaneous escape of 300 movement leaders, including Ernest, from prison.

Ernest arrives at the Sonoma refuge. The couple spends a year and a half working underground, teaching their comrades the art of conspiracy and disguise. The oligarch’s son, Philip Wixon, accidentally infiltrates the ravine, becoming a staunch socialist and a valuable double agent after a conversation with Ernest and Biedenbach. Meanwhile, Avis’s father disappears unnoticed, blending into the proletarian milieu.

The Chicago Uprising and the Death of the First Revolt

Revolutionaries are planning a nationwide uprising for the spring of 1918. Simultaneous bombings of wireless telegraph stations, bridges, and ammunition depots are planned. However, the Iron Heel uncovers the plot and launches a preemptive strike. Using false information and secret dispatches, the authorities provoke a premature uprising in Chicago.

Avis arrives in Chicago on the eve of the massacre. The city is cut off from the outside world. The oligarchs gather mercenary regiments and unleash the desperate inhabitants of the abyss against them. A bloody battle unfolds in the streets. The rebellious mercenary regiments and workers’ detachments are destroyed by artillery, aircraft, and machine guns. Bishop Morehouse is killed in the street fighting. Inventor Biedenbach drops a new explosive — expedite — in hot air balloons and destroys the Chicago fortress.

Ernest rescues Avis from the hell of street carnage. Mercenary losses exceed 130,000, while the abyssal denizens perish by the hundreds of thousands. The First Rebellion has failed. Leaving a devastated Chicago, Ernest and Avis return to underground work, preparing for the Second Rebellion. The manuscript ends mid-sentence as the mercenaries approach Avis’s hideout.