S6E4 The Political Philosophy of Mark Twain: On His Absurd, Noble Americans with Ivan Kenneally

While many know that Mark Twain created some of the most famous characters in literature—Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Jim and Puddn’head Wilson—too few have understood that the Missouri author wasn’t only America’s greatest humorist, but also one of its most subtle political thinkers. But what was the political philosophy of the elusive and ironic Mark Twain for his new democratic America?

To help answer that question, as we continue Season 6, I have as our guest Ivan Kenneally. A contributor to The New Atlantis and First Things, among other publications, he wrote an essay for The Hedgehog Review on modern reactions to Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), titled: “Mark Twain’s Absurd, Noble America,” which we will be discussing today.

We also talk about the travels of the two runaways Huck and Jim, along with their many disguises and ruses; how Americans like Tom Sawyer read European literature too dogmatically; the conmen Twain depicts in the Duke and Dauphin; technical versus tacit knowledge in his memoir Life on the Mississippi; contemporary interest in Twain from Ron Chernow and Percival Everett; the nature of irony as well as the poverty of modern comedy, and what philosophers and comedians alike can learn from the Missouri author and philosopher.

Hosted by Ryan Shinkel, Madison’s Notes is the podcast of Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The transcript for this interview is available on the JMP Substack page, “Madison’s Footnotes.