The savage wars of peace : small wars and the rise of American power

Boot, Max, 1968- (author.).

Summary:

Overview: While the major conflicts in American history have become all too familiar, America's "small wars" have played an essential but little-appreciated role in the country's growth as a world power. First published in 2002, The Savage Wars of Peace quickly became a key volume in the case for a new policy of interventionism. Max Boot shows how America's smaller actions-such as the recent conflicts in Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, and Afghanistan-have made up the vast majority of our military engagements, and yet our armed forces do little to prepare for these "low intensity conflicts." A compellingly readable history of the forgotten wars that helped promote America's rise in the last two centuries, The Savage Wars of Peace is now updated with new material on the repercussions of America's far-flung imperial actions and the impact of these ventures in American international affairs. Winner of the General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award for the best nonfiction book pertaining to Marine Corps History.

Record details

ISBN: 9780465064939
ISBN: 0465064930
Physical Description: xxiv, 454 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Edition: Revised paperback edition.
Publisher: New York, New York : Basic Books, 2014.
Copyright: �2014

Content descriptions

General Note:	First edition published 2002.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-431) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	List of maps -- Foreword to the revised edition -- Preface: Another American way of war -- Part 1: Commercial power. "To conquer upon the sea" : Barbary Wars, 1801-1805, 1815 ; "Butcher and bolt" : from the Marquesas, 1813, to China, 1859 ; Empire emerging : from Korea, 1871, to Samoa, 1899 -- Part 2: Great power. Red summer : Boxer uprising, 1900 ; "Attraction" and "chastisement" : the Philippine War, 1899-1902 ; Caribbean constabulary : Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, 1898-1914 ; Lords of Hispaniola : Haiti, 1915-1934, Dominican Republic, 1916-1924 ; The dusty trail : the Pancho Villa punitive expedition, 1916-1917 ; Blood on the snow : Russia, 1918-1920 ; Chasing Sandino : Nicaragua, 1926-1933 ; "By bluff alone" : China, 1901-1941 -- Part 3: Superpower. Lessons learned : the small wars manual ; Lessons unlearned : Vietnam, 1959-1975 ; In the shadow of Vietnam : the Powell doctrine and small wars in the 1990s ; In the shadow of 9/11 : the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ; In defense of the Pax Americana : small wars in the Twenty-First Century -- Afterword to the revised edition.