Real Soldiers of Fortune

Real Soldiers of Fortune by Richard Harding Davis

A love story of rising American imperial power, Richard Harding Davis' Soldiers of Fortune tells the adventures of Robert Clay, a mining engineer and sometimes mercenary, and Hope Langham, the daughter of a wealthy American industrialist, as they get caught up in a heist. of state in Olancho, an imaginary Latin American republic. When the coup, organized by corrupt politicians and generals, threatens the American-owned Valencia Mining Company, Clay organizes his workers and the handful of Americans visiting the mine into a force against the coup. Written on the eve of the Spanish-American War, Soldiers of Fortune portrays the young American as the bold, hyper-masculine hero of the new military and economic. A huge best-seller, the novel did its part to propel the nation into war against Spain and stands as one of the most important texts in the literature of American imperialism.

The appendices, which bring together primary materials from writers and politicians such as Rebecca Harding Davis, Theodore Roosevelt, Jose Martí, Mark Twain, Herbert Spencer and others, address issues such as social Darwinism, masculinity and Anglo-American ideas of superiority.