About Jim Zwick

Jim Zwick is an American Studies scholar whose specialties include Mark Twain, U.S. social and political history, and educational uses of the Internet. He is the author of Confronting Imperialism: Essays on Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League (2007) and Inuit Entertainers in the United States: From the Chicago World's Fair through the Birth of Hollywood (2006), the editor of Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War (1992), and has published numerous book chapters and journal and magazine articles about the Anti-Imperialist League and Mark Twain's anti-imperialist writings. From 1989 to 1994 he also edited the FFP Bulletin published by Friends of the Filipino People. Jim has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of American Studies Asia, the Executive Committee of the Mark Twain Circle of America, and the Advisory Board of H-Amstdy, a member list of H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences Online that provides a forum for research and teaching in the field of American Studies. He has also worked as a consultant on documentary films and on educational uses of the Internet.

Jim began creating educational Web sites in 1994. His sites on Mark Twain on the Philippines and Mark Twain Resources on the World Wide Web were created in December 1994 and opened to the public in January 1995. Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935, followed in March, and Sentenaryo/Centennial: The Philippine Revolution and Philippine-American War in September. From March 1997 through September 2001, he also created and ran the Mark Twain site at About.com. In February 1999, he created the widely cited BoondocksNet.com site, consolidating the other sites at one domain and adding new sections on the Congo reform movement, the Progressive Era campaign to end child labor, political cartoons and cartoonists, world's fairs and expositions, and other subjects illustrating the intersections of political and cultural history. Jim closed his Web sites in August 2007. His print publications continue to be available and some of his works originally published on the Web may now be released in print.

Print Publications

Confronting Imperialism: Essays on Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League (West Conshohocken, Pa.: Infinity Publishing, 2007).

Inuit Entertainers in the United States: From the Chicago World's Fair through the Birth of Hollywood (West Conshohocken, Pa.: Infinity Publishing, 2006).

"Inuit Entertainers in the United States," a five-part series published in Them Days (Labrador):

"The Chicago World's Fair and Its Aftermath, 1892-1896," 29 (Summer 2005): 3-16.

"Esther Eneutseak and the Exposition Tour of 1900-1902," 30 (Fall 2005): 4-18.

"Coney Island and the 1904 World's Fair" 30:3 (2006): 32-42.

"Making Exposition and Hollywood History" 30:4 (2006): 17-25.

"Hollywood's First 'Real Eskimos'" 31:1 (2007): 19-27.

"Mark Twain’s Anti-Imperialism, Then and Now." Reframing the Issues: Contemporary Essays in Peace Studies, ed. Caroline Higgins (Richmond, Ind.: Earlham College Press, 2004), 47-53.

"Behind the Song: Bread and Roses." Sing Out! 46 (Winter 2003): 92-93.

"Mark Twain's Anti-Imperialist Writings in the 'American Century.'" In Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899-1999, ed. Angel Velasco Shaw and Luis H. Francia (New York: New York Univ. Press, 2002), 38-56.

"Mark Twain and Imperialism." In A Historical Guide to Mark Twain, ed. Shelley Fisher Fishkin (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 227-255.

"Foreword." In The Story of the Lopez Family (Manila: Platypus Publishing, 2001), 5-13.

"The Anti-Imperialist Movement, 1898-1921." In Whose America? The War of 1898 and the Battles to Define the Nation ed. Virginia M. Bouvier (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001), 171-192.

"The 'Stereoscopic' War of 1899." In Voices and Scenes of the Past: The Philippine-American War Retold, ed. Maria Serena I. Diokno (Quezon City: The Jose W. Diokno Foundation, 1999), 1-5.

"Mark Twain's Opposition to United States Imperialism: A Centennial Perspective," BU Bulletin (Bicol University, Legazpi City, Philippines), Oct. 1998 - Jan. 1999.

"The Anti-Imperialist League and the Origins of Filipino-American Oppositional Solidarity." Amerasia Journal 24:2 (Summer 1998): 65-85.

"Mark Twain and the Single Tax Movement." The Georgist Journal No. 87 (Summer 1997): 5-10.

"'Prodigally Endowed With Sympathy for the Cause': Mark Twain's Involvement with the Anti-Imperialist League." Mark Twain Journal 32 (Spring 1994): 2-25 (mailed spring 1997). Enl. and rev. version of article first published in Ephemera Journal 5 (1992): 50-68.

"William Dean Howells and the Anti-Imperialist League." Mark Twain Journal 32 (Spring 1994): 25-26 (mailed spring 1997).

"An Empire Is Not a Frontier: Mark Twain's Opposition to United States Imperialism." Over Here: Reviews in American Studies 15 (Summer-Winter 1995): 58-70.

"Sitting in Darkness: An Unheeded Message About U.S. Militarism." Baltimore Sun (April 23, 1995), J1, J6. Also distributed by the Los Angeles Times Wire Service.

"Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and the Anti-Imperialist League, 1899-1920." In Proceedings of the 1994 Maxwell Colloquium (Syracuse: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse Univ., 1995), 105-110.

Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War, Editor (Syracuse: Syracuse Univ. Press, 1992; Philippine edition, Manila: Popular Book Store, 1994).

"An American Anti-Imperialist: Mark Twain on the Philippine-American War," Filipinas Magazine (Sept. 1992), 50-54.

"Mark Twain on American Imperialism" (Excerpts from Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire, cover story), Atlantic Monthly 269 (April 1992): 49-65.

"Who Wrote the Couplet? Textual Variants in Mark Twain's 'Salutation to the Twentieth Century,'" Mark Twain Journal 27 (Spring 1989): 34-39 (mailed Sept. 1991).

"Imperialists & Anti-Imperialists: The Roots of American Non-Intervention Movements," Nonviolent Activist, War Resisters League (March 1991), 11-12.

"Militarization in the Philippines: From Consolidation to Crisis," Philippine Research Bulletin 1:2-3 (Fall/Spring 1984-1985): 5-9.

"Militarism and Repression in the Philippines," in Michael Stohl and George A. Lopez, eds., The State as Terrorist: The Dynamics of Governmental Violence and Repression (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984): 123-142.

Militarism and Repression in the Philippines, McGill Studies in International Development No. 31 (Montreal: Centre for Developing-Area Studies, McGill Univ., 1982).

Documentary Films

Two Bells/Two Worlds. Directed by Bernard Stone, 2002. Distributed by The Cinema Guild. (Pre-production consultant and on-screen commentary.)

Mark Twain. Directed by Ken Burns. Florentine Films, 2001. (Program advisor.)

Electronic Publications

Web Sites

Inuit Entertainers in the United States. InuitEntertainers.com, Sept. 2006-Aug. 2007 (closed).

HistoryIllustrated.com. Nov. 2004-Aug. 2007 (closed).

Mark Twain for President. Twain2000.com & Twain2004.com, Sept. 1999-Dec. 2001 & April 2003-April 2005 (moved to BoondocksNet.com).

BoondocksNet.com. Feb. 1999-July 2007 (moved to HistoryIllustrated.com).

Mark Twain. About.com, March 1997-Sept. 2001 (moved to BoondocksNet.com).

Sentenaryo/Centennial: The Philippine Revolution and Philippine-American War. Various domains, Sept. 1995-Feb. 1999 (moved to BoondocksNet.com).

Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935. Various domains, March 1995-Feb. 1999 (moved to BoondocksNet.com).

Mark Twain Resources on the World Wide Web. Various domains, Jan. 1995-Feb. 1999 (moved to About.com and BoondocksNet.com).

Mark Twain on the Philippines. Various domains, Jan.-March. 1995 (absorbed into Anti-Imperialism in the United States).

Essays

"Review: Manifest and Other Destinies: Territorial Fictions of the Nineteenth-Century United States, by Stephanie LeMenager," Mark Twain Forum (Twain-L@yorku.ca), March 16, 2005.

"Review: Mark Twain, by Peter Messent," Mark Twain Forum (Twain-L@yorku.ca), Aug. 18, 1997.

"Towards Critical Internationalism Within U.S.-Based American Studies." Interroads: International/Comparative Perspectives on the Study of American Culture (Interroads@home.ease.lsoft.com), Feb. 16, 1997. Solicited essay followed by responses by Mustafah Dhada, Sylvia Hilton, John Carlos Rowe, Dolores Janiewski, and E. San Juan, Jr.

"Remembering St. Louis,1904: A World on Display and Bontoc Eulogy." American Studies List (H-Amstdy@msu.edu), March 2, 1996.

"Review: Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs and Empire." American Studies List (H-Amstdy@msu.edu), Nov. 7, 1995.