Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War

Finley Peter Dunne created one of American literature's most irresistible voices in Mr. Dooley, a Chicago saloon-keeper who dispenses philosophy the way he pours whiskey: with generosity, precision, and a kick. Through conversations with his credulous friend Mr. Hennessy, Dooley dismantles the pretensions of the powerful with devastating simplicity. When a politician or diplomat strutters into his establishment, they leave diminished, their pomposity pierced by Dooley's Roscommon-accented common sense. The essays range across the Spanish-American War, the mysteries of American imperialism, and the daily comedy of democratic life, but they share a consistent target: the gap between how the powerful explain their actions and what those actions actually mean to ordinary people. Dunne wrote in dialect, which gives the book its texture and its challenges, but the wit translates across time. This is satire that understands humor as a form of resistance, a way of telling truth to power without getting shot. It captures a specific moment in American immigrant life while speaking to something permanent about the relationship between the governed and those who govern them.