Empire by default : the Spanish-American War and the dawn of the American century / Ivan Musicant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Musicant, Ivan, 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spanish-American War, 1898.

Physical Description:

ix, 740 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : H. Holt, 1998.

Summary:

Now, moving from the councils of Madrid to the conferences in Washington, from the victory at Manila Bay to the battle of San Juan Hill, from factional in-fighting to inflammatory journalism, prizewinning historian Ivan Musicant offers a dramatic narrative that, in this centenary year, will stand as the definitive account. Step-by-step, Musicant takes the reader through the thicket of arguments and decisions that led to America's almost accidental mantling as an imperial power. Here are the issues and debates, the strategies and obstacles, the ideals, interests, and missed opportunities. Here, too, are the political conflicts of the day - conflicts that America would encounter repeatedly in the century to come and that reveal as much about the flaws in its governmental system as they do about the ambiguities in the nation's vision of itself.

Notes:

"A Marian Wood book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 704-716) and index.

ISBN:

0805035001

OCLC:

37246278