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University of California Press

The Radical Jack London

Writings on War and Revolution
by Jack London (Author), Jonah Raskin (Introduction by)
Paperback
Price: $34.95 / £30.00
Publication Date: May 2008
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9780520255463
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 5 b/w photographs
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About the Book

"Big things are happening secretly all around," says Jack London's prescient hero Ernest Everhard in the 1908 novel The Iron Heel, excerpted in this timely anthology of London's writings about war and revolution. Besides illuminating his surprising literary range, The Radical Jack London establishes the iconic American author as both a product of his own era and a significant voice for ours. The book features works by London that have been unavailable for decades. In his insightful introduction, editor Jonah Raskin lays out the social, economic, and political contexts for London's polemical writings and shows London to be America's leading revolutionary writer at the turn of the twentieth century.

About the Author

Jack London (1876-1916) was the author of The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea-Wolf (1904), and the prophetic novel The Iron Heel (1908), among some fifty books. Jonah Raskin is Chair of Communications at Sonoma State University and produces the website radicaljacklondon.com.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction: Jack London: The Orphan at the Abyss

PART I BOY SOCIALIST, 1895–1899
Pessimism, Optimism and Patriotism
What Socialism Is
The Voters’ Voice
Socialistic Views
The Road
The Question of the Maximum

PART II COMRADE WHITE MAN, 1900–1905
The Economics of the Klondike
Incarnation of Push and Go
The Salt of the Earth
The People of the Abyss, Chapter 1: The Descent
How I Became a Socialist
What Shall Be Done with !is Boy?
Japanese O9cers Consider Everything a Military Secret
Revolution

PART III APOSTATE REVOLUTIONARY, 1906–1912
The Apostate
Something Rotten in Idaho: !e Tale of the Conspiracy against Moyer, Pettibone and Haywood
The Pen
The Iron Heel, Chapter 23
Martin Eden, Chapter 46
If Japan Wakens China
Burning Daylight, Part II, Chapter 8
War
Introduction to Alexander Berkman’s Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist

PART IV COSMIC VOYAGER, 1913–1916
John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs, Chapter 36
The Star Rover, Chapter 22
Letter of Resignation from the Socialist Party
Of Man of the Future

Bibliography
Acknowledgments
For Classroom Discussion
Index

Reviews

“A near-perfect selection of Jack London’s radical writings. All of London’s important political tracts are here.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“This anthology makes a good argument for refreshing [Jack London’s] relevance as a polemicist.”
— Morning News
“Insightful.”
— Sonoma State Star
“Resonates powerfully with our contemporary political culture. . . . A must for London lovers, and people who really want to know about American politics—this book might even influence your vote.”
— North Bay Bohemian
“A must for London lovers, and people who really want to know about American politics--this book might even influence your vote.”
— Bohemian.com
“A near-perfect selection of London's radical writings.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.”
— Library Journal
“Marked with careful scholarship and an ability to digest a mass of material and [Raskin writes] about it clearly and convincingly. . . . A timely and valuable book.”
— Redwood Coast Review
“Raskin provides excellent introductions, to both the book as a whole and each passage.”
— Choice
“The book features works by the legendary Oakland writer that no one has seen for decades, illustrating London’s importance as a revolutionary thinker.”
— East Bay Monthly
“[Raskin] has assembled a near-perfect selection of London's radical writings. [He] captures the spirit and dynamics of London's life in ways that the majority of full-length London biographies do not.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
"This splendid volume does more than reinstate Jack London as a leading voice of the American cultural left. Jonah Raskin documents how London struggled to reconcile his political and his personal desires, creating memorable art but failing to save himself. One of the world's most popular writers comes alive, in all his passion and agony."—Michael Kazin, author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

"Interest in Jack London never flags. This first-rate anthology places London at the epicenter of the American radical tradition."—Kevin Starr, University of Southern California

"In this well conceptualized anthology, Jonah Raskin has resurrected works that have been unavailable for decades, making The Radical Jack London a very timely presence for the twenty-first century. Raskin's own writing is forceful and engaging, and he is unblinkingly honest about London as person and as writer, never succumbing to romanticizing or whitewashing the picture of either."—H. Bruce Franklin, John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies, Rutgers University

"Jack London always knew how to bang a righteous drum of social indignation, and in The Radical Jack London he can make your heart pound even today."—Paul Berman, author of Power and the Idealists and editor of Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems