The Anti-Imperialist Reaction to Rudyard Kipling's White Man's Burden
George Ade
'Stories of Benevolent Assimilation' (Newspaper Series), Chicago Record, July-October, 1899.
This serial ran for only four months, but is one of the most satirical literary responses to the imperial policy. Ade satirized imperialism through the character of Washington Conner "a traveling representative of the civilization of the United States." The stories have been best chronicled and analyzed by Perry E. Gianakos in a book and in the article 'George Ade's Critique of "Benevolent Assimilation"'. The reproductions here of the original Chicago Record series were scanned through OCR software and may contain slight typographical imperfections.
'The Missionary Arrives,' July 8, 1899.
'The Family Decides to Assimilate,' July 15, 1899.
'Mr. Kakyak Decides to be a Republican,' July 22, 1899.
'The Missionary Relents,' July 29, 1899.
'The Summer Trip,' August 5, 1899.
'Eulalie and the Stranger,' August 12, 1899.
'The Songs of a Country,' August 19, 1899.
'An Unruly Pupil,' August 26, 1899.
'Two Rebellions,' September 2, 1899.
'Sports and Pastimes,' September 9, 1899.
'House Decoration,' September 16, 1899.
'Social Customs,' September 23, 1899.
'Mr. Conner Makes a Report,' September 30, 1899.
'Mr. Conner Begins to Doubt,' October 4, 1899.
'Eulalie,' October 11, 1899.
'Treachery,' October 18, 1899.
The Sultan of Sulu: An Original Satire in Two Acts (1903)
Ade's musical ran for over a year in Chicago and was exported to Boston and New York. The Sulu (Jolo) Islands were the setting for the controversial Bates Treaty (1899) and the musical examines a humorous impression of how the Treaty came about. It was one of the most popular representations of imperialism.
Katharine Lee Bates
Raymond L. Bridgman
Loyal Traitors: A Story of Friendship for the Filipinos (1903)
Bridgman's story is more an account of the anti-imperialist movement. The book indirectly caricatures personalities of famous anti-imperialists like Francis Ellingwood Abbot, Moorfield Storey and David Fagen. The heroine, Faith Fessenden has the potential of being the image of feminine liberty. She is sensitive, kind, and just. The story turns on three Bostonians going to the Philippines to fight alongside Aguinaldo's rebels.
Stephen Crane
Ernest Howard Crosby
Ernest Crosby was an integral part of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York, serving as its President until the New York League was merged into the New England national League in 1904. Crosby was a Tolstoyian and his anti-imperialism travelled in similar veins, satirically mocking war and militancy.
Captain Jinks, Hero (1902)
Swords and Plowshares (1906)
Finley Peter Dunne
Finley Peter Dunne was one of the most influential satirists of his time, and although he never joined the Anti-Imperialist League he was aligned with the movement. Dunne's most important contribution to satire is Mr. Dooley, an Irish bartender from Chicago's south side. Mr. Dooley was born in 1893, the year Chicago hosted the World's Fair, and he was catapulted to fame during the Spanish-American War. During the early years of the twentieth century, Mr. Dooley was America's favorite Irish philosopher, and for his thoughts on anti-imperialism see in particular Mr. Dooley in Peace and War, and Mr. Dooley in the Hearts of His Countrymen. Though these early works contain the bulk of Mr. Dooley's anti-imperialism, Dunne continued to write about foreign policy and U.S. imperialism long after it was possible to do so.
Mr. Dooley in Peace and War (1898)
Mr. Dooley in the Hearts of his Countrymen (1899)
Mr. Dooley's Philosophy (1900)
Mr. Dooley's Opinions (1901)
Observations by Mr. Dooley (1902)
Mr. Dooley Says (1910)
Henry Blake Fuller
William Lloyd Garrison
William Dean Howells
The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)
'Editha,' originally published in Harper's Monthly (January, 1905) available in Between the Dark and the Daylight (1907)
One of Howells' most troubling looks at war and its impact on society. Editha sketches the war craze through a young woman urging her fiancee to enlist. When the soldier dies for his nation at her request, she must confront his mother with the news. Not only does the short story raise themes of right and wrong, but it evaluates gender and the female character both in youth and adulthood.
Edgar Lee Masters
The Constitution and Our Insular Possessions (1900)
Masters published this work as a pamphlet to opposed from a legal position the policy of imperialism. It largely adopted the opinion of George Frisbie Hoar during the Treaty of Paris debates one year earlier.
Maximilian: A Play in Five Acts (1902)
One of a handful of Masters' dramatic plays, Maximilian details the story of European imperialism in Mexico during the Civil War--a time when the Monroe Doctrine was ineffective.
The New Star Chamber and Other Essays (1904)
Masters is best remembered for his poetry, but this collection of expository prose strikes deep at the historical chords of imperialism and applies the past to the present situation brewing in the Philippines. Particularly the essays 'The New Star Chamber' and 'The Philippine Conquest' succeed as two of Masters' most thoughtful examples of historical introspections that culminate in anti-imperialist ideology.
Spoon River Anthology (1915)
Spoon River was Masters' biggest literary success. It is a collection of poems focused on specific people from a small town and it develops themes that mirror anti-imperialism via an ongoing admiration for modesty and selflessness. A good example is 'Harry Williams'.
Gettysburg, Manila, Acoma (1930)
This compilation of three plays is dedicated to three major military battles and are also three plays about the convergences of ideologies and peoples.
Joaquin Miller
Chants For the Boer (1900)
The Complete Works of Joaquin Miller (1902)
Joaquin Miller's Poems (1917)
William Vaughn Moody
If the anti-imperialist movement had a poet laureate, it was William Vaughn Moody. One of the most eloquent poets of his day, Moody most beautifully associated anti-imperialism with slavery in "Ode in a Time of Hesitation." Two other most prominent anti-imperialist pieces include "On a Soldier Fallen in the Philippines" and "The Quarry." These poems examined the soldier's perspective and the economics of imperialism.
The Poems and Plays of William Vaughn Moody, Vol. I, (1912)
Lincoln Steffens
Mark Twain
Mark Twain is certainly one of the mammoth figures in anti-imperialism, and certainly the foremost anti-imperialist literary figure. Twain was a honorary vice-president of the New York League, and he worked on anti-imperialist campaigns for the Boer's in South Africa, the Congolese, and the Russians. The literary works that follow are not comprehensive, but do detail his most prominent anti-imperialist works.
'The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg,' Harper's New Monthly Magazine (December, 1899).
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg makes no attempts to cover up the thinly veiled analogy of Hadleyburg to the United States. Hadleyburg was a most ethical and revered place until a sack of gold delivered by a stranger corrupts the towns most upstanding citizens. In many ways Hadleyburg succumbs to William Appleman Williams' Tragedy in that it ignores its endearing values for materialism.
'To the Person Sitting in Darkness,' North American Review Vol. 172, No. 2. (February, 1901).
Without any doubt 'To the Person Sitting in Darkness' is Twain's most famous anti-imperialist piece. The satire is incredibly dark and Twain does not hesitate to taunt those whom he considers to be immoral including McKinley as the "Master of the Game," the missionaries, and the trusts. Twain does not fail to allude to their historical opposites, Washington and Lincoln.
'To My Missionary Critics,' North American Review Vol. 172, No. 4. (April, 1901).
'A Defense of General Funston,' North American Review Vol. 174, No. 1. (January, 1902).
C. E. S. Wood
Charles Erskine Scott Wood was an Anti-Imperialist League officer until the League dissolved in 1921 and his anti-imperialist poems have yet to be sufficiently presented in a compilation of his works.
