The Iron Heel, published in 1908, is considered the earliest of the novels in the modern dystopian genre.  Set in the distant future, the book is based on a fictional first person narrative by a woman named Avis Everhard that chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny, the “Iron Heel” in the United States in the early twentieth century along with parallel developments in Asia, India, Europe and elsewhere. The Iron Heel consists of the largest monopoly corporations who force smaller businesses into bankruptcy and squeeze farmers and the middle class into poverty and serfdom. A privileged class of laborers in essential industries arises along with a military caste. The Oligarchy lasts for three centuries until overthrown by the Revolution. The “Everhard Manuscript” was written during the First Revolt and tells of Avis’ privileged childhood, her marriage to socialist revolutionary Ernest Everhard, the fall of the Iron Heel and the years of underground resistance.  It includes an introduction and numerous footnotes by scholar Anthony Meredith made long after the fact in about 2600 AD. Jack London’s socialist views about politics and society are very much on display. The Iron Heel was a forerunner of later soft science fiction novels and an important influence on George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four, stating that London made a “very remarkable prophecy of the rise of Fascism”.

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