Jack London
The people of the abyss
Socialism in American letters.
Reformist SocialistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Socialist hall →- Role
- Writer & socialist
- Era
- 1876–1916
- Region
- United States
- Social band
- Reformist
- Placement
- −76 · +20 · +50
§ Where Jack London stands
3 axesLondon wanted capitalism replaced by collective ownership. The People of the Abyss (1903) indicted the poverty at the heart of the richest empire on earth, The War of the Classes (1905) argued that class struggle was the defining fact of the age, and The Iron Heel (1908) imagined a corporate oligarchy crushing the workers, a warning of where unchecked monopoly could lead.
London was a democratic socialist agitator who worked through elections, standing as the socialist candidate for mayor of Oakland in 1901 and 1905 and serving from 1905 as first president of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. His rhetoric, and the armed uprising in The Iron Heel, flirted with revolutionary violence, but his practical politics stayed within party campaigning and lecturing.
London's progressivism was real but contradictory. He championed the dignity of workers and tramps, exposed brutal prison conditions in The Star Rover (1915) and admired independent women such as his second wife, Charmian. Yet he also embraced theories of white racial superiority, from his 1904 Yellow Peril essay to the 1910 story The Unparalleled Invasion, which imagines the extermination of China's population.
How close are you to Jack London?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
HistoricalJack London (1876–1916), born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco, was an American novelist, journalist and socialist. Raised in poverty around Oakland, he worked in canneries and mills, sailed on a sealing schooner, tramped with an army of the unemployed in 1894 and served a month for vagrancy before educating himself and joining the Klondike gold rush. His adventure stories, above all The Call of the Wild (1903), made him one of the best-paid and most famous writers in the world.
London joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1896 and the Socialist Party of America after its founding, ran twice for mayor of Oakland and lectured on revolution to packed halls. The People of the Abyss (1903), on the slums of London's East End, and the dystopian The Iron Heel (1908) brought class struggle to a mass readership. His socialism coexisted with crude racial theories, visible in his 1904 essay on the Yellow Peril and his reporting on the boxer Jack Johnson. He quit the party in 1916, months before his death.
Notable for
- 01'The Iron Heel'
- 02'The People of the Abyss'
- 03Socialist lecturer
Key works & moments
- 1894Marches with Kelly's Army of the unemployed and serves 30 days for vagrancy.
- 1901Runs for mayor of Oakland as a socialist, and again in 1905.
- 1903Publishes The Call of the Wild and The People of the Abyss.
- 1905Becomes the first president of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society.
- 1908Publishes The Iron Heel, a dystopia of oligarchy crushing socialist revolt.
- 1916Resigns from the Socialist Party months before his death at his Glen Ellen ranch.
In their own words
“It is quite fair to say that I became a Socialist in a fashion somewhat similar to the way in which the Teutonic pagans became Christians—it was hammered into me.”
“I am resigning from the Socialist Party, because of its lack of fire and fight, and its loss of emphasis on the class struggle.”
§ Minds closest to Jack London
All minds →
§ Also in the Socialist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat was Jack London's political ideology?
Jack London was a revolutionary-minded but electoral socialist: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reformist Socialist. Economically he sat well to the left (−76), wanting capitalism replaced by collective ownership. On governance he leaned only slightly toward the state (+20), campaigning through the Socialist Party and its elections even as his fiction imagined armed revolt. Socially he was progressive (+50) on class, labour and prison reform, though he also held crude theories of white racial superiority.
Was Jack London left-wing or right-wing?
Left-wing. London was a committed socialist for most of his adult life, joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1896 and later the Socialist Party of America, ran for mayor of Oakland as a socialist and used his fame to spread the cause. His racial views and his individualist heroes have led some readers to detect a right-wing streak, but his politics as he declared and practised them were firmly on the left.
Why did Jack London quit the Socialist Party?
Because he thought it had gone soft. In March 1916 London resigned with a letter citing the party's lack of fire and fight and its loss of emphasis on the class struggle. He had long been impatient with the reformist, vote-seeking turn of the Socialist Party of America, and the First World War widened the gap, since he sympathised with the Allied cause while many comrades opposed the war. He died that November, at the age of forty.
Which minds are closest to Jack London?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Jack London are August Bebel (97% alike), Aneurin Bevan (97% alike) and Jean Jaurès (97% alike). The furthest is Hans-Hermann Hoppe (8% alike).