Twain Dreams is an irreverent look at Mark Twain, his writing, the times he lived in, and the birth of industrialization and mass culture. During Twain’s life, America went from a sleepy rural republic to an industrial behemoth, transforming what it meant to be an author, a worker, and a citizen along the way. Slavery was swept aside; industrial wage labor and modern imperialism took its place. For those with ambition, it was an exciting, terrifying, exhilarating time to be alive.

Often, Twain was at the forefront of these changes, taking advantage of new technology to travel the world, build a fanbase, and make some truly terrible investment decisions. A hater of slavery and aristocracy, he cheered progress and the fall of romantic illusions in speeches and through works like Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. But there was one romantic illusion that he himself couldn’t sweep away: the idea that scientific progress and humanism went hand-in-hand. And by the end of his life, after a series of personal misfortunes, he’d become deeply cynical of the whole thing.

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