Abstract:
Confronting Imperialism is history for our times. Founded in 1898, the Anti-Imperialist League mobilized opposition to the Philippine-American War, still one of the most controversial wars in U.S. history. Until his death in 1910, Mark Twain was a vice president of the League and the most prominent literary opponent of the war. “We have got into a mess, a quagmire,” he said in 1900. In this collection of essays, Jim Zwick, editor of the first collection of Mark Twain’s writings on the war, explores the history of the Anti-Imperialist League, Twain’s anti-imperialist writings, and their continuing influence and relevance today.