The Iron Heel

The Iron Heel is a novel by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.

It is a dystopian work about the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is perhaps the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are most explicitly on display. A forerunner of science fiction novels and stories of the 1960s and 1970s, the book stresses future changes in society and politics while paying much less attention to technological changes.

In an alternate in which communism ruled, The Iron Heel was required reading in all literature classes. Gianfranco Mazzilli, who'd enjoyed London's adventure stories, found The Iron Heel boring.