Mark Twain
My book review is on Mark Twain Social Critic by Philip S. Foner, published by International Publishers in 1958, and has 440 pages. This book is meant to bring Twain’s thoughts and ideas together and present them into book form to give everyone an idea of what Mark Twain thought and felt about the time he had lived in. Mr. Foner examines Mark Twain’s thinking on a number of issues, including his views on society, politics, and religion. In this book, after doing much research on Mark Twain, Foner has attempted to show why Twain felt the way he did and where some of his ideas possibly came from. Hopefully, this book review will show why and how Twain fits into the broad spectrum of American ideas through his thoughts on society, politics, and the religious principles of America during the late 1800’s.
Twain’s view on religion was shaped by his parents and other relatives, including his uncle, John Quarles. Quarles was a Universalist – “a believer in the doctrine that all mankind will be saved and not only the elect; that truth and righteousness are controlling powers in the universe, and that Good must therefore triumph over Evil.(165)” Twain’s mother was a Presbyterian, while his father had no use for church, yet even his mother was somewhat liberal in her thinking. According to Foner, Twain was also exposed to Deism when he read The Age of Reason as a cub pilot on the Mississippi, and this must have unsettled Twain’s wavering Presbyterianism. (170) Twain thought a lot of Christians were hypocrites, especially wealthy Christians, because they seemed to worship profit and also wanted to be considered good Christians at the same time. Twain called Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut, the “Church of the Holy Speculators” because of the conduct of its wealthy pew holders. (180) Foner also says that Twain thought John D. Rockefeller was just as hypocritical because Rockefeller was saying that God gave him the money because he extracted it from his competitors. Foner writes that Twain wrote an unpublished comment in “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” which is, “There are Christian Private Morals, but there are no Christian Public Morals,” Twain wanted people to “throw away their public morals and use none but their private ones henceforth in all their activities. (185)” Foner thinks Twain wanted people to discard conventional faith and make one to help civilization, to quit being blinded by traditional theology. Twain seemed to be disgusted by the clergy who exalted imperialism and tried to justify their support of imperialistic ideas. Twain wrote, “If Christ were here now, there is one thing he would not be – a Christian. (20 0)” Foner claims Twain wasn’t an atheist, which I would a gree with, but, I think Twain was hoping for humans to become better than their natures, but was constantly disappointed by some Christians lack of ethics.
As for politics, Twain lived during a period of history in which the United States had fought a Civil War, then had to deal with Robber Barons and Imperialism. Twain worked for a Senator in 1868 and was disgusted by the elected helping big businesses destroy independent small business. Twain writes, “The government of my country shuns honest simplicity, but fondles artistic villainry; and I think I might have developed into a very capable pickpocket if I had remained in public office a year or two. (86)” Twain saw men like Jay Gould, James G. Blaine, and William Tweed manipulate or outright rob Americans of the money entrusted to them by bribing others and making sure they never got caught being corrupt. Foner says that Twain used the power of satire to communicate his feelings to the people and arouse them to action. Mark Twain was so disgusted with people who used their wealth just for themselves, that he and Charles Dudley Warner wrote The Gilded Age in 1873 . Foner thinks the two men wrote it to portray American realities during President Grant’s administration that was being served as an agency for the Robber Barons and they thought no other contemporary novelists were portraying America realistically. (92) In 1876, even though Twain was disgusted with both political parties, he campaigned for Rutherford B, Hayes who called for an end of corruption through civil service reform. Twain was on the Republican bandwagon until James G. Blaine became the Republican Presidential candidate in 1884, so Twain supported the Democrat, Grover Cleveland. This was only because Twain was against Blaine more than he was for Cleveland. Twain was never for party allegiance, he upheld his belief in political independence and thought Americans should keep their principles no matter what, even if that meant voting for someone outside their party. As for imperialism, Twain criticized how the United States acquired Hawaii though American busines s ventures to keep Europe from getting a foothold there, and he argue d, “The property as got to fall to some heir, and why not the United States? (311)” During the Spanish-American War in 1898, Twain supported American intervention in Cuba, but criticized the war in the Philippines as a war of conquest. Twain concluded this, says Foner, by reading the Treaty of Paris and being convinced the war for humanity had become a war for conquest. (332) Twain was convinced imperialism would destroy the nations’ democratic heritage and the United States would become a dictatorship of wealth. (392) Foner shows how Twain was influenced by the politics of his day and how much it affected Twain’s writings. If Twain were alive today, he would probably make some of the same arguments.
As for American society, Twain was for the equal rights of women, and for the creation of labor unions. Twain had heard Anna Dickinson, a woman’s rights lecturer in early 1867, but wasn’t converted to her cause because “she used arguments that would not stand analysis. (116)” Later that year, Twain began to support female suffrage, especially since he was friends with a staunch suffragette, Isabella Hooker Beecher. Twain, Foner says, concedes that justice was on the woman’s side and they deserved to get the vote. As for workers, Twain thought they had a right to leisure and enjoyment of life, but it would take force to get results and until the worker was organized was when they would get results from the power arrayed against them. (216) Twain followed the Knights of Labor and when they won a victory over railroad tycoon Jay Gould in 1885, Twain “hailed it as a triumph for all who believed in democracy. (219)” Everyone else viewed the Knights as socialists and a menace, but Twain felt labor unions were a good thing and would replace rule by capitalists. Eventually, Twain thought the government should take industries out of private hands and operate them for the good of the people, which was an influence by William Dean Howells, who had become a socialist. According to Foner, Twain did not believe that socialism would remedy the crimes of capitalism, he thought organized labor was the way to remedy problems, and said of the working class, “They are the creators of wealth; they build civilization; and without them no civilization can be built. (236)” I think Twain was probably ahead of his time when it came to the rights of women, but without some money backing up the worker, the worker wouldn’t be able to build civilization, and the business wouldn’t survive with either.
In conclusion, Philip Foner wrote a solid book about Mark Twain being a social critic. The book was filled with many ideas and thoughts about civilization that Mark Twain held. Reading this book helped me to see how and why Mark Twain developed some of his beliefs and how it affected some of the books he wrote. For those who would like to know why Mark Twain was critical of the times he lived in, then Mark Twain Social Critic is something you should read.
Bibliography
Foner, Philip S. Mark Twain Social Critic. New York: International Publishers, 1958, 1966.
the books – smells like content
