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    The Statesman and the Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the Rise of American Imperialism
    Unavailable
    The Statesman and the Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the Rise of American Imperialism
    Unavailable
    The Statesman and the Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the Rise of American Imperialism
    Ebook1,005 pages20 hours

    The Statesman and the Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the Rise of American Imperialism

    By Mark Zwonitzer

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The friendship between Mark Twain and Secretary of State John Hay is strained by the horrors of the Spanish-American War in this compelling dual biography.

    In The Statesman and the Storyteller, documentarian Mark Zwonitzer presents a compelling dual biography of writer Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) and statesman John Hay (who served as secretary of state under presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt). Covering the last ten years of their lives, Zwonitzer provides an intimate look into the friendship—and rivalry—of these influential men, as well as an elucidating portrait of the United States on the verge of emerging as a world power.

    It was the era of the Spanish-American War, a controversial conflict in which the United States would eventually wrest control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. In what many consider one of the most shameful periods in American history, Filipinos who believed they had been promised independence were instead violently subdued in a brutal war. The United States also used its growing military and political might to grab the entirety of the Hawaiian Islands and a large section of Panama.

    As secretary of state during this time, Hay, though a charitable man, was deeply complicit in these misdeeds. Clemens, a staunch critic of his country’s imperialistic actions, was forced by his own financial and family needs to temper his remarks. Nearing the end of their long and remarkable lives, both men found themselves struggling to maintain their personal integrity while remaining celebrated public figures.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateApr 26, 2016
    ISBN9781616205980
    Author

    Mark Zwonitzer

    Mark Zwonitzer is a writer and director whose work appears nationally on public television. He is currently finishing up work on a documentary about the creation of the transcontinental railroad and hopes to begin working on a documentary about the Carter Family soon. He lives in Connecticut.

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    Reviews for The Statesman and the Storyteller

    3.5/5

    8 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Thorough A lengthy examination of American history at the turn into the twentieth century. The author chose to narrate the period through the eyes of two American legends, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and John Hay (President Lincoln's secretary). Both men were seeking to secure their places in history, during this period, the twilight of their lives. The amount of ground covered is immense. The two main characters are sometimes tangentially connected, but the author manages to explore different viewpoints as to America's role using them as his windows into the period. The device works well, succeeding in pulling together difficult points. This is not a book to be rushed through, rather one that should be read a bit at a time, giving the reader the chance to determine his own opinions.
    • 4/5
      Samuel Clemens is an enduring interest, and I thoroughly enjoyed this account of the final years of his life, co-mingled as it was with my first exposure to a biography of a Hay. Both biographies are worthy, and the subjects' influence on, and reactions to, the rise of American imperialism is an engrossing subject. Yet this didn't quite scratch the itch I'd hoped it would. Twain's friendship and respect for Hay, despite their substantial differences over the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations' actions in the Philippines never generates a tension in Zwonitzer's writing the way I felt it should have given the import of the subject matter, Clemens's passion on the subject, and Hay's involvement. In some respects, I think this wasn't quite what I expected is because the men, while born in the same general area of Missouri, and close for a time in their young adulthood, were not particularly close late in life, and their was never much, if any, tension between them personally. Had Zwonitzer brought more to bear on the dissonance between these hugely important characters, perhaps been more of an antagonistic narrator with regard his subjects, not only the savagery arising from the strains of white supremacy, Christianity, and oligarchy that drove the politics and policies of the era, a milieu both men were naturally soaked in, I'd recommend this more highly. For Clemens buffs, it's an essential read, I think. For me, it was also a nice buttress for my understanding of the McKinley and Roosevelt Presidencies, the former barely getting mentioned, as I recall, in my history lessons in HS and in college, so I was glad for the chance to learn more about it while reading about Clemens and Hay.