The statesman and the storyteller
Subtitle: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the rise of American imperialism
By: by Mark Zwonitzer
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 583
ISBN-13: 9781565129894
Subjects: Foreign relations; Territorial expansion
Other titles: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the rise of American imperialism
Description: "John Hay, famous as Lincoln's private secretary and later as secretary of state under presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, and Samuel Langhorne Clemens, famous for being 'Mark Twain,' grew up fifty miles apart, on the banks of the Mississippi River, in the same rural antebellum stew of race and class and want. This shared history helped draw them together when they first met as up-and-coming young men in the late 1860s, and their mutual admiration never waned in spite of sharp differences in personality, in worldview, and in public conduct. In The Statesman and the Storyteller, the last decade of their lives plays out against the tumultuous events of the day, as the United States government begins to aggressively pursue a policy of imperialism, overthrowing the duly elected queen of Hawaii; violently wresting Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines away from Spain, and then from the islands' inhabitants; and finally encouraging and supporting a revolution to clear a path for the building of the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal. Rich in detail, The Statesman and the Storyteller provides indelible portraits of public figures such as Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge. Stunning in its relevance, it explores the tactics of and attitudes behind America's earliest global policies and their influence on U.S. actions for all the years to follow. But ultimately it is the very human rendering of Clemens and Hay that distinguishes Zwonitzer's work, providing profound insights into the lives of two men who helped shape and define their era" --
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 555-562) and index.
Table of contents: title: Making a way in the world; title: A bad luck habit; title: With friends like these; title: Right and kind towards the others; title: Something more than nothingness; title: Still at sea; title: Accepting the inevitable, or not; title: Easing burdens; title: Bluff, brutal, blunt; title: The town begins to grow abominable; title: Theodore beats the drums; title: I will do without the monument; title: A panorama of power unequaled in history; title: The warm afterglow of a diamond jubilee; title: Repose and restfulness and superb scenery; title: Smoke and fog; title: Proportionately delightful; title: The demands of his conscience; title: No back down; title: You may fire when you are ready; title: What is our next duty?; title: You hold the game in your own hands; title: A larger orbe than my ambition doth stretch unto; title: As becomes a great nation; title: The United States is God's country; title: Planned and designed by the master of men; title: Back into the great happy river of life; title: I have never felt so absolutely alone; title: Winter and discontent; title: Daaaaaam-nation!; title: Et tu, Theodore?; title: And just beyond the Philippines?; title: How much truth to tell?; title: I'm expecting diminution of my bread and butter; title: The sorrow of one who knows; title: No answers but in time; title: The prophet Samuel...banished; title: And look where we are now; title: I could not resign now if I wanted to; title: I pledge you my honor; title: She said she wanted a home; title: Without danger to the public health; title: From the political point of view; title: It takes so little to upset the regular action of the heart; title: I didn't wish to be useful to the world on such expensive conditions.