Captain Jinks: Hero

by Ernest Howard Crosby

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

Ernest Howard Crosby (1856–1907) was an American reformer, georgist, and author. He was educated at New York University and the Columbia Law School and served on the New York State Assembly. From 1889 to 1894, he was judge of the Court of the First Instance at Alexandria, Egypt.

Crosby became an exponent of the theories of Count Tolstoy, whom he visited before his return to America; his relations with the great Russian later ripened into intimate friendship, and he devoted himself in America largely to promulgating Tolstoy's ideas of universal peace.

Reviews

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anti-war book was written in 1902. But it's really timeless --- and funny. The conundrum is this: If a "good solider obeys orders" how are they to develop a conscience? In some ways, Crosby style reminds of the Marx Brothers -- maybe they read his books. Using the "Cubappines" as a stand-in for all the nations victimized by the U.S. and European powers in the wake of the Spanish-American war, Crosby uses sarcasm and irony to be great points about the futility and wrong-headedness of one country trying to impose its culture and values on another. I learned about this book from Susan K. Harris' God's Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines, 1898-1902 (The War That Sparked Mark Twain's Conflict With America. That book is good, but Crosby's humorous look at the perfect American solider makes the same points more sharply. Crosby also makes sharp criticism of the media search for sensationalism and for its tendency to be fickle in its choice of Hero of the Day.

[Patrick Dempsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting little look into the political mind of anti imperialists in the early days of the 20th century. The story was enjoyable enough, although nothing particularly groundbreaking. What was particularly interesting was the moments when the hand of the authors arguments really shined through in his points against militarism.

I’m surprised i never learned about this book in school or even so much as heard about it. I only came across it by looking at a collection of public main books.

Worth a read for anyone with any interest in turn of the 20th century anti imperialism especially if they have a working knowledge of the history of the Spanish american war or the boxer rebellion.