History Literature / TheIronHeel

* FromNobodyToNightmare: One of the most infamous members of the Oligarchy is Albert Pocock. Described as a languid, unassuming man of unremarkable beginnings, he rises through the ranks of upper management very quickly, eventually becoming the brutal overseer of the Oklahoma strip-mining operation. Within the world of the story he's spoken of much as we speak of Mussolini: a cruel and swaggering tyrant.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: One of the most infamous members of the Oligarchy is Albert Pocock. Described as a languid, unassuming man of unremarkable beginnings, he manages to rise through the ranks of upper management very quickly, eventually becoming the brutal overseer of the Oklahoma strip-mining operation. Within the world of the story he's spoken of much as we speak of Mussolini: a cruel and swaggering tyrant.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: The Iron Heel crushes the First Revolt first by using double-agents to draw all the Revolutionaries to Chicago. Then they stir up a city-wide riot that gives them the pretense to send in their mercenaries, who basically ''wipe Chicago from the face of the earth''. Avis and Ernest barely make it out alive.]]

* DeweyDefeatsTruman: As a Future History depicting a time that has now passed, it was inevitable that the novel would fall into this trope somewhat. Some examples:

* {{Dystopia}}: Quite possibly the TropeMaker. It's certainly widely considered the first modern example of one, and [[TropeCodifier codified]] several tropes widely associated with the genre.

* SpoiledSweet: Avis starts out this way, the privileged daughter of a renowned scientist and scholar. Her relationship with Ernest exposes her to the plight of the poor and humble, and leads her away from her privileged life.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Avis is very much in love with her husband, and devotes a great deal of her manuscript to talking about his passion and energy. Yeah...she's not just talking about his political activism...

* WeHaveReserves: The Iron Heel's main resource is numbers: the vast population of workers kept under their thrall that they can guide and manipulate to do their bidding. This is one of the reasons they [[spoiler: sacrifice Chicago]]; they've got plenty more workers ready to step up and fill the empty spaces.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Some of the most dangerous of Everhard's operatives are women, mainly because they're underestimated by the Oligarchy and permitted to get close to powerful individuals in the guise of domestic servants and lovers. And many of them have suffered personally, or have had family suffer, at the hands of the Iron Heel, and they take their vengeance with frightening enthusiasm.

* BittersweetEnding / DownerEnding: [[spoiler: By the end of Avis's manuscript, the First Revolt has been crushed, Chicago has been lost, and Ernest is dead. But Avis holds out hope that the Second Revolt they're planning will succeed. Meredith, speaking from some seven hundred years in the future, notes that the Second Revolt ''fails completely,'' and the Iron Heel holds sway for centuries to come.]]

Well, it turns out Jack London set the stage for Dystopian Sci-Fi, singlehandedly codifying most of the Tropes we've now come to recognize as standard for the genre. Informed by the politics of TheGildedAge and by London's personal political views, ''The Iron Heel'' was meant to be something of a cautionary tale, a warning of what could happen if things were allowed to continue as they were. As such the novel can seem somewhat dry and preachy, and frankly, many of the Tropes he invented [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny have been done much better since 1908]].

* DeweyDefeatsTruman: As a FutureHistory depicting a time that has now passed, it was inevitable that the novel would fall into this trope somewhat. Some examples:

* FromNobodyToNightmare: One of the most infamous members of the Oligarchy is Albert Pocock. Described as a languid, unremarkable man of unassuming beginnings, he manages to rise through the ranks of upper management very quickly, eventually becoming the brutal overseer of the Oklahoma strip-mining operation. Within the world of the story he's spoken of much as we speak of Mussolini: a cruel and swaggering tyrant.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Albert Pocock, born of humble unassuming beginnings, and described by Meredith's footnotes as a languid, nondescript, unremarkable man. He rises through the ranks of the Oligarchy quickly, and becomes the much-reviled warlord of Oklahoma. His name becomes synonymous with oppression and wanton cruelty.

* GrayAndGreyMorality: There are good and bad individuals on both sides of the conflict. Once the Iron Heel establishes its control over the government, Avis notes that, surprisingly, many members of the ruling class actually develop a sort of sense of ''Noblesse Oblige'' toward the underclasses, and that some of them become great artists and engineers that advance the progress of human civilization. Meanwhile, there are plenty of members of the Resistance who have let their rage consume them and turn them into monsters.

* HumiliationConga: The Iron Heel's favorite tactic to discredit their enemies. Avis's father suffers one when he tries to speak out against them. First a cabal-controlled newspaper takes one of his remarks out of context and uses it to paint him as a dangerous revolutionary. Then the university is, ahem, "persuaded" to dismiss him from his post. And finally his house is taken from him, due to foreclosure on a mortgage that ''doesn't even exist.'' The joke turns out to be on the Iron Heel, though, because Professor Cunningham actually finds the loss of everything to be liberating, and he manages to carve a somewhat happy existence out of his remaining years.

* UnreliableNarrator: Meredith calls Avis Everhard this, but he's concedes that, due to her being right down in the thick of these violent, world-changing events, she couldn't possibly be expected to maintain the detached and impartial air of a trained historian, or demonstrate the same level of awareness of the long-term consequences of these events. [[ValuesDissonance And also that she's just a woman]].

* UnreliableNarrator: Meredith calls Avis Everhard this, but he's charitable enough to admit that she wasn't a trained historian, and she couldn't possibly know the long-term consequences of the events she was living through. [[ValuesDissonance And also that she's just a woman]].

* AlternativeCalendar: Anthony Meredith's far-future society, the Brotherhood of Man, reckons dates from its beginning. At the time of the FramingDevice it's 419 BOM, or approximately 2630 AD/CE.

* LesCollaborateurs: The "Favored Unions," members of the labor class who work to keep the Iron Heel in power.

The bulk of the novel takes place within a FramingDevice, in the form of a historical text written by one Anthony Meredith, in the far-flung year of 419 BOM (Brotherhood Of Man) - approximately the year 2630 by our calendar. The text is an analysis of the recently-discovered "Everhard Manuscript," a lost chronicle of the tumultuous years between 1912 and 1932, when the so-called "Iron Heel" was first consolidating its power. The Iron Heel was a powerful cabal of industrialists that rose to prominence in the early years of the 20th Century, eventually growing so powerful that they managed to take over the government of the United States, squeeze the Middle Class into extinction, and turn the bulk of the population into overworked slaves in all-but-name. In its early days the Iron Heel was opposed by a radical group led by the visionary thinker Ernest Everhard, and later by his wife Avis, the actual author of the Everhard Manuscript. Through the Manuscript we learn how the Iron Heel rose to power, first in the United States and later throughout the world, what measures they took to maintain that power (it ain't pretty), and what Everhard and his allies did to try and resist them. [[spoiler: Thanks to the FramingDevice, however, we readers know from the start that Everhard's rebellion fails, and that the Iron Heel endures for centuries after his death.]]

* PrivatelyOwnedSociety: Technically the Iron Heel doesn't ''own'' the people who work for them. They're free to seek other employment if they wish. It's just that they're the only game in town - and by "town" we mean "planet".

* CapitalismIsBad: Par for the course for Jack London's political writings.

* CapitalismIsBad: Par for the course for Jack London's political writings. The Iron Heel is a Plutocracy that bribed and threatened its way into power, and by the end isn't even pretending to be a democratic society.

* GrayAndGreyMorality: There are good and bad individuals on both sides of the conflict. Once the Iron Heel establishes its control over the government, Avis notes that, surprisingly, many members of the ruling class actually develop a sort of sense of ''Noblesse Oblige'' toward the underclasses, and that some of them become great artists and engineers that advance the progress of human civilization. Meanwhile, there are plenty of members of the Resistance who have let their rage consume them and turn them into violent monsters.

The bulk of the novel takes place within a FramingDevice, in the form of a historical text written by one Anthony Meredith, in the far-flung year of 419 BOM (Brotherhood Of Man) - approximately 2630 AD. The text is an analysis of the recently-discovered "Everhard Manuscript," a lost chronicle of the tumultuous years between 1912 and 1932, when the so-called "Iron Heel" was first consolidating its power. The Iron Heel was a powerful cabal of industrialists that rose to prominence in the early years of the 20th Century, eventually growing so powerful that they managed to take over the government of the United States, squeeze the Middle Class into extinction, and turn the bulk of the population into overworked slaves in all-but-name. In its early days the Iron Heel was opposed by a radical group led by the visionary thinker Ernest Everhard, and later by his wife Avis, the actual author of the Everhard Manuscript. Through the Manuscript we learn how the Iron Heel rose to power, first in the United States and later throughout the world, what measures they took to maintain that power (it ain't pretty), and what Everhard and his allies did to try and resist them. [[spoiler: Thanks to the FramingDevice, however, we readers know from the start that Everhard's rebellion fails, and that the Iron Heel endures for centuries after his death.]]

* CaliforniaCollapse: "The Big One" happens in 2368 AD, devastating Sonoma County. When the Everhard Manuscript is discovered a few centuries later, it revives historical interest in the pre-BOM era, and historians are able to find the former site of one of Everhard's resistance cells, uncovered by the earthquake-shifted landscape.

* CrapsackWorld: Pretty standard futuristic Dystopia: an oligarchy of businessmen and industrialists hold all the political and economic power, and live in disgusting luxury in "wonder cities," exclusive high-tech paradise communities. The vast majority of the population lives in crowded filthy slums, laboring long hours for subsistence-level compensation. Conditions are so dehumanizing that the workers actually ''devolve'' mentally, becoming almost feral. Outside of the cities there is only chaos, as embattled farming communes regress into feudal states and clash constantly with Iron Heel mercenaries. The individual cells of Everhard's Resistance form similar communes, which are relatively more peaceful and equitable, but the methods they use to maintain their secrecy are no less brutal and cruel than the Iron Heel's methods to maintain order.

* LesCollaborateurs: The "Favored Unions," members of the labor class who work to keep the Iron Heel in power.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Albert Pocock, born of humble unassuming beginnings, and described by Meredith's footnotes as a languid, nondescript, unremarkable man. He rises through the ranks of the Oligarchy quickly, and becomes the much-reviled warlord of Oklahoma. His name becomes synonymous with wanton cruelty and dictatorship.