Mark Twain - As Bênçãos da Civilização

The title is mocking and needs no explanation: "The Blessings of Civilization" is a collection of essays, letters, speeches, and satires that reveal Mark Twain as the chronicler of American dishonor.

In fierce texts against war, colonialism, and racism, written between 1870 and 1908, Twain addresses both the infamies of the United States (Cuba wrested from the Spanish, the carnage in the Philippines, the segregation of Chinese people in California, the lynching of Black people in the South) and the tyrannies of European nations around the globe.

From the profane pacifism of "The War Prayer" to the corrosive candor in "Goldsmith's Friend Abroad Again," passing through the grotesque character of "King Leopold's Soliloquy," "The Blessings of Civilization" is a denunciation of hypocritical patriotisms and civilizing vocations – with the dark and piercing humor of Mark Twain, in lines of astonishing relevance today.