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Based largerly on unpublished manuscripts, this book traces Mark Twain’s progress as a social critic. Through this new material we are able to understand his great compassion for mankind, and to see him as a profound thinker.Dr.Foner does not minimize Twain’s value as a humorous and satirical writer but rather seeks to show that the general tendency is to fasten only on his humour which has shorn him of much of what was most meaningful in his outlook both for his own day and ours. With great scholarship, the author examines Mark Twain’s thinking on a wide range of issues: politics and government, religion, capital and labour, the brotherhood of man and imperialism. Of all American writers of his time he was the most vigorous opponent of imperialism. Throughout the book, Dr. Foner takes as his guiding principle Mark Twain’s dictum:''In writing it is usually stronger and more dramatic to have a man speak for himself than to have someone else relate a thing about him.''Quoting generously from Twain’s major works, he skillfully weaves them into his theme. Above all, the book reveals Mark Twain’s deep dedication to the welfare of mankund, a dedication that surmounts the barriers of time to speak to us today