A Historical Guide to Mark Twain (Historical Guides to American Authors) (Historical Guides to American Authors)

Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens), a former printer's apprentice, journalist, steamboat pilot, and miner, remains to this day one of the most enduring and beloved of America's great writers. Combining cultural criticism with historical scholarship, A Historical Guide to Mark Twain addresses a wide range of topics relevant to Twain's work, including religion, commerce, race, gender, social class, and imperialism. Like all of the Historical Guides to American Authors, this volume includes an introduction, a brief biography, a bibliographic essay, and an illustrated chronology of the author's life and times. When and why do groups target each other for extermination? How do seemingly normal people become participants in genocide? Why do some individuals come to the rescue of members of targeted groups, while others just passively observe their victimization? And how do perpetrators and bystanders later come to terms with the choices that they made? These questions have long vexed scholars and laypeople alike, and they have not decreased in urgency as we enter the twenty-first century. In this book--the first collection of essays representing social psychological perspectives on genocide and the Holocaust-- prominent social psychologists use the principles derived from contemporary research in their field to try to shed light on the behavior of the perpetrators of genocide. The primary focus of this volume is on the Holocaust, but the conclusions reached have relevance for attempts to understand any episode of mass killing. Among the topics covered are how crises and dificult life conditions might set the stage for violent intergroup conflict; why some groups are more likely than others to be selected as scapegoats; how certain cultural values and beliefs could facilitate the initiation of genocide; the roles of conformity and obedience to authority in shaping behavior; how engaging in violent behavior makes it easier to for one to aggress again; the evidence for a "genocide-prone" personality; and how perpetrators deceive themselves about what they have done. The book does not culminate in a grand theory of intergroup violence; instead, it seeks to provide the reader with new ways of making sense of the horrors of genocide. In other words, the goal of all of the contributors is to provide us with at least some of the knowledge that we will need to anticipate and prevent future such tragic episodes The Historical Guides To American Authors Is An Interdisciplinary, Historically Sensitive Series That Combines Close Attention To The United States' Most Widely Read And Studied Authors With A Strong Sense Of Time, Place, And History. Placing Each Writer In The Contect Of The Vibrant Relationship Between Literature And Contemporary Social, Political, And Cultural Relevance. They Also Include A Capsule Biography And Illustrated Chronology Detailing Important Cultural Events As They Coincided With The Author's Life And Works, While Photographs And Illustrations Dating From The Period Capture The Flavor Of The Author's Time And Social Milieu. Equally Accessible To Students Of Literature And Of Life, The Volumes Offer A Complete And Rounded Picture Of Each Author In His Or Her America. -- Back Cover. Mark Twain, 1835-1910: A Brief Biography / Forrest Robinson -- A Moralist In Disguise: Mark Twain And American Religion / Harold K. Bush, Jr. -- A Republican Artisan In The Court Of King Capital: Mark Twain And Commerce / Gregg Camfield -- Mark Twain And Race / Shelley Fisher Fishkin -- Mark Twain And Gender / Susan K. Harris -- Mark Twain And Social Class / Robert E. Weir -- Mark Twain And Imperialism / Jim Zwick. Edited By Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 279-298) And Index. Contents......Page 8 Introduction......Page 12 Mark Twain,1835–1910: A Brief Biography......Page 22 TWAIN IN HIS TIME......Page 62 “A Moralist in Disguise”: Mark Twain and American Religion......Page 64 A Republican Artisan in the Court of King Capital: Mark Twain and Commerce......Page 104 Mark Twain and Race......Page 136 Mark Twain and Gender......Page 172 Mark Twain and Social Class......Page 204 Mark Twain and Imperialism......Page 236 Illustrated Chronology......Page 266 Bibliographical Essay......Page 288 Contributors......Page 308 A......Page 312 B......Page 313 C......Page 314 D......Page 315 F......Page 316 H......Page 317 I......Page 318 L......Page 319 M......Page 320 O......Page 321 R......Page 322 S......Page 323 T......Page 324 W......Page 326 Z......Page 327 Machine generated contents note: Introduction 3 Shelley Fisher Fishkin Mark Twain, 1835-1910: A Brief Biography 3 Forrest Robinson TWAIN IN HIS TIME 'A Moralist in Disguise": Mark Twain and American Religion 55 Harold K. Bush, Jr. A Republican Artisan in the Court of King Capital: Mark Twain and Commerce 95 Gregg Camfield Mark Twain and Race 27 Shelley Fisher Fishkin Mark Twain and Gender 63 Susan K. Harris Mark Twain and Social Class 95 Robert E. Weir Mark Twain and Imperialism 227 Jim Zwick Illustrated Chronology 257 Bibliographical Essay 279 Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Around the summer of 1874, Mark Twain rapidly read and digested W.E.H. Lecky's History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (1869), writing the following in the margins: "If I have understood this book aright, it proves two things beyond shadow or question: 1: That Christianity is the very invention of Hell itself; 2 & that Christianity is the most precious and elevating and ennobling boon ever vouchsafed to the world."