Cast in deathless bronze : Andrew Rowan, the Spanish-American War, and the origins of American empire / Donald Tunnicliff Rice.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rice, Donald Tunnicliff, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intelligence officers--United States--Biography.

Intelligence officers.

Spanish-American War, 1898--Secret service--United States.

Spanish-American War, 1898.

United States. Army--Officers--Biography.

United States.

Rowan, Andrew Summers.

Rowan, Andrew Summers--Travel--Cuba.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (385 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Morgantown, [West Virginia] : West Virginia University Press, 2016.

Summary:

"In 1898, when war with Spain seemed inevitable, Andrew Summers Rowan, an American army lieutenant from West Virginia, was sent on a secret mission to Cuba. He was to meet with General Calixto García, a leader of the Cuban rebels, in order to gather information for a U.S. invasion. Months later, after the war was fought and won, a flamboyant entrepreneur named Elbert Hubbard wrote an account of Rowan's mission entitled 'A Message to Garcia.' It sold millions of copies, and Rowan became the equivalent of a modern-day rock star. His fame resulted in hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, radio shows, and two movies. Even today he is held up as an exemplar of bravery and loyalty. The problem is that nothing Hubbard wrote about Rowan was true. Donald Tunnicliff Rice reveals the facts behind the story of 'A Message to Garcia' while using Rowan's biography as a window into the history of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine War, and the Moro Rebellion. The result is a compellingly written narrative containing many details never before published in any form, and also an accessible perspective on American diplomatic and military history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1. "It is meritorious to be a boy at West Point"

2. Becoming an Intelligence Officer

3. "A Most Perilous Undertaking"

4. America Takes a Step towards Empire

5. The Creation of an American Myth

6. Exactly Where Are the Philippines?

7. A Glorious Undertaking

8. Captain Rowan in Command

9. An Idyllic Spot to Spend the War

10. Major Rowan in Love and War

11. The Complexities of Retirement

12. The Myth Lives On

Epilogue.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781943665440

1943665443

9781943665457

1943665451

OCLC:

950084390