View source for Sitting in Darkness

Mark Twain’s “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” is a polemical article which appeared in the [[North American Review]] in 1901 ([https://www.zotero.org/groups/4437667/mtxdigital/items/UD2CVFHG/ 172:531, 161-176]). The first half of it is made up of satirical comments on the recent dealings of England, Germany, Russia, and the United States for their invasion of smaller undeveloped countries. The second half has specific references to the conduct of the United States in the Philippines. According to his biographer Albert Bigelow Paine “Mark Twain never wrote anything more scorching, more penetrating in its sarcasm, more fearful in its revelation of injustice and hypocrisy” ([https://www.zotero.org/groups/4437667/mtxdigital/items/DMJ27M5U MTB 3:1129]) The article received a lot attention in the American press and divided the country into two camps. “It was really as if he had thrown a great missile into the human hive, one half of which regarded it as a ball of honey and the remainder as a cobblestone” ([https://www.zotero.org/groups/4437667/mtxdigital/items/DMJ27M5U MTB 3:1129]).


'''Selected Contemporary Reactions:'''

* “[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031442034&view=1up&seq=269&skin=2021 Mark Twain and Ex-President Harrison on the Philippine Policy.” ''The Literary Digest,'' Vol. XXII, No. 8 (February 23, 1901): 217-219].
* “[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076886181&view=1up&seq=586 Among the Periodicals.” ''The International Socialist Review'', Vol.1 (1900-01): 581-582]. Calls it "one of the most scathing and sarcastic reviews of capitalism that has appeared in many a day."
* [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027049678&view=1up&seq=387 “Mark Twain on the Philippine Problem.” ''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'', Vol. 23 (Jan-Jun. 1901): 339-340].


'''Related Items:'''

* Mark Twain. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044079392452&view=1up&seq=530 “To My Missionary Critics.” ''The North American Review'', Vol. 172, No. 533 (Apr. 1901): 520-534].
* [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027049678&view=1up&seq=688 Mark Twain and His Critics.” ''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'', Vol. 23 (Jan-Jun. 1901): 622].

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