Twain's ‘To the Person Sitting in the Darkness’ satirized American imperialism

Twain ruthlessly criticized other writers

The writer was known for lambasting popular writers of his time, including Jane Austen and Robert Louis Stevenson. One of his most famous takedowns is “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” an essay that simultaneously mocks Cooper’s popular adventure tales and satirizes the pretentiousness of literary criticism. Remarking on Cooper’s novel “The Deerslayer,” Twain wrote, “its conversations are—oh! Indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.”

Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience' was largely a protest against the Mexican-American War

Henry David Thoreau refused to pay taxes that funded what he saw as an unjust war waged to expand slavery. His act of protest inspired his famous essay "Civil Disobedience," a foundational text for nonviolent resistance.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Whitman's antislavery writing often focused on white Americans

The poet was openly opposed to slavery, though some of his writing focuses on abolition’s benefits for white people rather than for the lives of the enslaved.

Twain didn’t start wearing his iconic white suit until later in life

The writer first wore the white suit in 1906, at the Library of Congress. “I have reached the age where dark clothes have a depressing effect on me,” Twain told the Washington Post. “I prefer light clothing, colors, like those worn by the ladies at the opera.”

Langston Hughes' 'I, Too' replies to Walt Whitman

Hughes was a fan of Whitman and used one of the Good Gray Poet's most famous poems, "I Hear America Singing," as the basis for his 1926 poem "I, Too." Hughes' work is both a response and a pointed commentary about the unequal treatment of Black Americans.

Satire often employs irony

Satirists often make their point indirectly through ironic statements, indirectly highlighting the foolishness of the thing they’re mocking. An example is Mark Twain's satirical 1882 essay, “Advice to Youth.” “Build your character thoughtfully and painstakingly upon these precepts,” he wrote, “and by and by, when you have got it built, you will be surprised and gratified to see how nicely and sharply it resembles everybody else’s.”

The Benjamin Franklin letter that anticipated daylight saving time

Benjamin Franklin did not invent daylight saving time. But while living in Paris, he did pen a satirical letter to Parisians suggesting they could save money on lamp oil by changing their sleep schedules. Read it in full here.

On the role of 'Citizenship In A Republic'

After finishing a Smithsonian-sponsored expedition to East Africa, US President Theodore Roosevelt stopped by Paris and gave a speech about the responsibilities an ordinary citizen has to their republic. Citizens must know there is no effort without error, knowing they "fail while daring greatly" in pursuit of a truly democratic republic. This podcast series on powerful speeches across history is written and narrated by historian and author Jon Meacham.

How Orwell's time in Myanmar influenced his writing

Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police in Myanmar (then Burma, a British colony) in 1922, at 19. In her introduction for Orwell's debut novel, "Burmese Days," Emma Larkin unpacks how Orwell's five years working there shaped the book and informed his politics, especially his negative view of colonialism.

Tolkien's grandson says 'Lord of the Rings' was influenced by WWI

JRR Tolkien fought in World War I, an experience his grandson, Simon Tolkien, says informed the fantasy legend’s famous trilogy. The companionship between Frodo and Sam and Sauron’s pervasive evil, according to the younger Tolkien, were directly influenced by time on the battlefield.

Before World War II, the US was a Pacific power

Decades before Pearl Harbor, the US held major Pacific territories—Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa, and numerous island bases—giving it strategic reach across the western Pacific. This presence increasingly overlapped with Japan’s imperial ambitions in the region, contributing to rising tensions.

'Dystopia,' explained

John Stuart Mill introduced the term "dystopia" in 1868 to critique harmful policies, calling it the opposite of utopia, or an ideal world. The concept grew as industrialization and totalitarian regimes exposed societal flaws, inspiring works like George Orwell's "1984" to warn against oppression and moral decay.

Candide's 'Voltaire' satirized blind optimism

The French philosopher’s most famous work, published in 1759, cataloged the journey of its titular hero, who was guided by a crackpot philosopher and the belief that optimism was the solution to life’s problems, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Some believe 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' is a political allegory

Although Baum claimed his book was intended as a simple children's story, scholars challenged that notion. One high school history teacher, Henry Littlefield, began teaching the book as a satire of the Gilded Age and published an essay inspiring other scholars to consider the text as a politically charged allegory.

Charlie Chaplin's 'Modern Times' blended slapstick and satire

The 1936 film thrust Chaplin's iconic Little Tramp character into the Industrial Revolution, satirizing how mass production was dehumanizing individuals. The movie was not only a hit, but it was also the product of a burgeoning Hollywood: Chaplin had founded his own company (United Artists) in 1919.

Shakespeare’s American productions have often reflected the state of the country

Shakespeare’s works have been used to interpret moments in US history, from the Astor Place Riot in 1849 and Lincoln’s frequent quotations of “Macbeth,” to the use of Shakespeare in nationwide classrooms today.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

The American missionary and the uncontacted tribe

When a 26-year-old American missionary set out for a lush island in the Indian Ocean last year, it was with one objective in mind: to convert the uncontacted Sentinelese tribe, who had lived for centuries in isolation, free from modern technology, disease, and religion. John Chau's mission had ambitions for a great awakening, but what awaited instead was tragedy.

Learn about the Beatles song 'Taxman,' which was inspired by Britain's tax structure

In the US, many people think of the IRS as the "taxman"—but the Beatles song is actually about the tax structure in the UK at the time. George Harrison wrote the song when he realized that even though the Beatles had started earning money, "we were actually giving most of it away in taxes," as he wrote in his autobiography.

Dada artists satirized the horrors of World War I

The movement’s early performances were absurd cabarets featuring experimental poetry, avant-garde music, and maskwork. Much of it was reckoning with the growing deathcounts of World War I, with work that often lampooned Western imperialism and supposed rationality.

A 1908 toy visualizes how the sun never set on the British Empire

Researchers uncovered an early-1900s children’s toy that romanticized the British Empire: a rotating world map showing where the sun shone on Britain’s far-flung territories. The interactive device also served as an advertisement for "The Children’s Encyclopedia."

'The Dark Night Rises' was inspired by 'A Tale of Two Cities'

The 2012 Batman film makes several allusions to the Dickens novel, with one character even holding a copy of the book in a final scene. Director Christopher Nolan and his brother (and screenwriter) Jonathan Nolan frame Gotham as a place of inequity, much like Dickens does with London and Paris. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Interred Japanese Americans wrote satirical poetry

Senryu is a Japanese poetic form that is similar to the haiku, though its aim is often satirical and its composition is often collaborative. At California’s Tule Lake Segregation Center, interred citizens met to write senryu together, often composing verse that criticized their surroundings.

'Mutual ignorance breeds mutual distrust.'

- Businessman Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919)

The Monroe Doctrine was designed to keep Europe out of the Americas

First articulated in 1823 by President James Monroe, the doctrine declared the Western Hemisphere off limits to European colonization. It has since been invoked to justify US military interventions in Latin America, from Teddy Roosevelt's takeover of Venezuela to George H.W. Bush's arrest of Panama's leader Manuel Noriega.

'And I knew that it was better to live out one's absurdity than to die for that of others.'

-Ralph Ellison, from "Invisible Man" (1913-1994)

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.