The general idea (that the laboring class possesses immense power if it
only becomes more aware of its situation and acts on it) is found in many
19th century sources. A certain amount of convergence between two American
authors who shared a culture and vocabulary is to be expected, even if
there was no direct influence. I suspect to even entertain this idea you
need a society with widespread literacy and print or broadcast media. The
idea that systematic robbing the productive members of society of the
fruits of their labors is wrong, and very damaging to society, is found in
the Bible and in numerous ancient, Medieval, and early modern sources, but
the corrective force is always top down - a reformed priesthood or a just
monarch..

Martha Sherwood

On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 5:40 AM Matthew Seybold <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Though “The New Dynasty” was performed for the Hartford Monday Evening
> Club in 1886, it wasn’t published until 1957, four decades after Sandburg’s
> poem. - MS
>
> > On Mar 25, 2019, at 8:22 AM, Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > In 1886, Twain wrote an essay entitled "The New Dynasty."
> >
> > Its theme, and much of its language, are quite similar to Carl
> Sandburg's poem "I Am the People, the Mob" of half a century later.
> > It is plain to me that Sandburg read Twain's essay, and was inspired by
> its thought process and even some of its wording.
> > Did he ever acknowledge the role that Twain's essay played in his
> writing that poem?
> >
> > - B. Clay Shannon
>