5 comments about Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars (Yale Historical Publications Series).

1. Kristin L. Hoganson's Fighting for American Manhood does an interesting job of walking the thin line between gender definitions, interpretations of discourse and traditional explanations of behavior in two fields that have been difficult for many newer historians to break into, international relations and military history. Although primarily a work explaining American motives in the first, Hoganson does bring some new insights on the latter to light. The work is a somewhat successful attempt to synthesize the various answers historians have previously put forward to the question, "Why did the United States go to war in 1898?" Hoganson suggests that by understanding the very real phenomenon of cultural perceptions of "manliness," and how these perceptions affected the nation as a whole and those in power in particular, we may reach a more well defined answer.
   Acknowledging the validity of many of the previous explanations put forward by historians, Hoganson weaves many of them together. For example, while acknowledging that annexationist aspirations were relevant to the political actors of the day, she points out that many of the underlying reasons for these aspirations may be ascribed to gender fears. Politicians wanted to appear "manly," and there was no better way to appear this way to the voting populace than to adapt a "jingo" platform. With a similar stroke she places explanations revolving around Social Darwinists in a broader picture by illustrating that at the root of many of the fears of social degeneracy and racial competition were definitions and discourse which is clearly painted with gender based pigments. In these areas Hoganson hits her stride and in large part succeeds in redefining the scope of our understanding to include gender.
   She does not, however, hit the mark in a few areas. Primarily because it appears that she never really aimed in that direction. Specifically, her treatment of the economic and strategic explanations for the Spanish-American War appear to be missing. While she does make a series of valid observations about the gender biases of several of the key actors in these areas, these observations are not relevant as causation. Naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan was almost certainly extremely gender biased, and in all likelyhood was also a racist, but neither of these were central to his reasoning. As evidence that the strategists carried little weight she points to the fact that the Army was not expanded in conjunction with the massive naval expansion of the period. One is left wondering why naval officers and supporters would have pushed for a large army when their whole theory of geostrategic influence and security rested not upon the occupation of land, but on the domination of sea lanes. Many of the same problems apply when she addresses economic factors. Overall, her dismissal of geostrategic and economic factors rests primarily upon a loose scaffold of secondary sources and the very real gender biases of the primary actors.
   This is a moderate work of synthesis that potentially serves as the starting point for a new generation of interpretation. Hoganson has met her goal, she set out to lay a new cornerstone for the interpretation of American imperialism at the turn of the century and she has largely succeeded. Gender is a valid lens through which we may view many of the factors contributing to the American imperialist experiments. What now remains is for Hoganson or others to follow this up with a valid and in-depth gender based analysis of the factors she dismissed or glossed over, military and economic.



2. Studying how gender norms and ideals contribute to, and at times create, historical events is not a revolutionary idea; but applying gender norms and ideals to how late nineteenth and early twentieth century Americans understood war and empire comes very close to being just that. Professor Hoganson's short study of how bellicose ideals of male virility which glorify physical prowess and anxieties about an altering gender landscape in the years just before and after the Spanish and Philippine-American wars adds a new level of complexity to the study of those wars, and the path which American foreign policy took during the twentieth century. Using the time tested method of simply taking seriously what policy makers and popular media outlets said and wrote, she builds a rock solid case for reinterpreting American foreign policy in particular, and war in general, through humans' more visceral conceptions of themselves.
   
   Zeroing in on the language norms and the gender ideals which they espoused, Fighting for American Manhood recreates the sense of urgency that much of America's political and cultural elite felt concerning the declining stature of elite men in American society. For the generation of American men who had been either too young to fight in the Civil War, anxiety about their personal and political worth in comparison to the Civil War generation mixed with a personal resentment about being continually marginalized by that generation-especially in the political arena. Even more troubling to much of the elite was the perception that, unlike the Civil War generation, these men could not measure up physically to the working men who were demanding, often violently, greater participation in American life. Accompanying all of these criticisms that the young American elite leveled at themselves was a poisonous interpretation Darwin's evolutionary doctrine which argued that only the physically strong could survive in the dangerous game of international politics. Add to this a resurgence the early nineteenth century standard of honor where slights would require physical resolution and the closure of the frontier, and Americans already had powder keg in the persons of young men itching for a fight.
   
   The changing role of women in American society added some of the most profound anxiety which was making young men hope for a fight-one that would reassert their sense of manliness. The fact that women were arguing for suffrage, were highly visible, and vocal, in civic and moral reform movements which were challenging men's prerogatives in what were traditionally men's private spheres, was cause for even further concern. This concern was exacerbated by general gist of many women activists argument that an infusion of feminine sensibilities into the political dialogue was the best way to assure a better world for all mankind. These sentiments struck at the core of ideals of robust manliness that the young, increasingly belligerent, and politically ambitious generation of American He-men found most dear.
   
   Enter Cuba. Though it is something of an overstatement to argue that insurgent Cuba represented for Jingoes an ideal land where men were men and women were women in the most reactionary sense imaginable, it is not complete overstatement. In recounting the political rhetoric used by the Congressional supporters of Cuba libre and the press coverage Spanish atrocities in the penny dailies, Hoganson recreates the image of a noble island of honorable fighters and dainty women that were more likely found to be in The Art of Courtly Love or the more middle-brow romances that were popular fare in the late nineteenth century. This was more the creation of fanciful imagination than it was of a product of reflection on the conditions of the Cuban insurrection, but like many myths it was taken very seriously even by those who helped to create it. Wanting to believe the officers and soldiers of Cuba libre were knights and squires in need of fraternal assistance from their powerful brothers to the north was overwhelmingly attractive to men who were questioning their own worth by the standards they believed Cubans exemplified. Only interaction with Cuban irregulars would alter the romantic conceptions fostered by government and popular media.
   
   Most interesting in Professor Hoganson's account of the period leading up the Spanish war is her argument, recounted with very solid evidence, that respect for the supposed valor and nobility on the part of Cuban soldiers trumped racism. Cuba was rightly understood to be an island of black and brown people and the fact that racist Southern papers like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution could describe the martyred Afro-Cuban General Antonio Maceo as "one of the world's greatest warriors," while the Prussian descended Spanish General Valeriano Weyler was characterized as a contemptible gun thug is something which is remarkable to the modern reader familiar with how race relations were in the United States at this time (45-48). Myths of white supremacy, whether believed because of supposed scientific rigor or simply taken on faith, were capable of being trumped by a mythos just as dangerously pernicious. Just as the nobility myth came under a deadly scrutiny when American soldiers encountered Cuban conditions, the oddly unhistorical anti-racism of the Jingoes would die with exposure to Cuban conditions-even if unfairly.
   
   Overall, the book is a creative look at what is an unjustly overlooked period in American history. Furthermore it is a creative look at what motivates young men, and increasingly young women, to pine for war without particularly caring about the cause for which they are fighting.



3. In a somewhat flamboyant pose with his tails and pinstripe pants, Uncle Sam breaks out of his regular pose . Kristin L. Hoganson uses the illustration to depict a rather loose portrait of American symbolism in her examination of how gender and cultural studies ties in with the historical narrative of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, FIGHTING FOR AMERICAN MANHOOD: HOW GENDER POLITICS PROVOKED THE SPANISH-AMERICAN AND PHILIPPINE-AMERICAN WARS. Hoganson's study is unique, and is yet an additional perspective about US history's most overlooked conflicts and possible blunders. Her interdisciplinary approach defines the roots of the conflict, which relates to the political, social, and cultural atmosphere that occurred during the late nineteenth century - women's suffrage, social Darwinism, and imperialism.
   
   Hoganson's suggests that manhood is the premise of President Mckinley's personality and leadership. It was the driving force that exacerbated engagement in a war that was culturally and politically perplexing. Hoganson touches on noncombatant aspects of the war, jingoism, imperialists, anti-imperialist movement, and economic annexation. However, Hoganson does not indulge in a military study of the war, but she correlates the romanticism of the US Civil War as an inspiration for jingoist behavior during the Spanish-American War as well as the Philippine-American War. Hoganson continuously emphasizes that the war was a response to maintaining fraternalism during a period where social issues engendered the perception and participation in war activity.
   
   With the accompaniment of political cartoons, Hoganson interprets her premise of manliness. The political-propaganda cartoons serve as a metaphor for both the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars. This was the period where the mass media and the telegraph emerged as effective means of communication, but also lent itself to misinformation and misconceptions.
   
   I doubt that FIGHTING FOR AMERICAN MANHOOD is supposed to interpret the entire purpose of US engagement in the war. However, it is yet another perspective that delves deep within the historical lens and shows the reader how social influences may have an effect on individual leadership and the actions that are taken to achieve successful results.



4. The author approaches her subject from an interesting perspective. So-called masculine myths have always heavily influenced male roles in both domestic and foreign policy. For all recorded time, the ruling classes constantly produce the so-called 'idle rich," most of whom chose to remain remain comfortable idle, while others, with the benefit of that very idleness begin to question their place in society and the wider world. Some decide that they must play a significant part on the local-to-international stage. Whether Greek, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, Zulu, Roman, Incan or European, some of these patricians of their respective societies will have a driving ambition and will chose a path to leadership and this times means picking up a rock or spear or G4/M16/AK-47 and fighting. What role does gender politics play in these decisions? Sure - but only to a point - gender identification and gender roles sometime play a dominant part, but some of them have displayed no insecurity about their manliness at all. Think of Julius Caesar, captured by pirates and warning them, even as they laughed at him, that he'd return and punish them. Was he asserting his manliness. I think the pirates just picked up the wrong kid - someone who didn't like to be humiliated, regardless of his gender. If the hostage had been a female celt, she might have returned herself to avenge her honor. A lot of this has to do with the place of the warrior in society. For the Romans, that was almost the exclusive role of men. But for non-Romans of Europe, women were very much in the mix. Think of tribes in Britain where women could succeed men and rule. In all these societies, a case can be made that these young male patricians are just asking themselves, "What is my place in the universe?" and "Why has the Deity placed me in a situation of obvious advantage over my fellows?" and "What can I do to leave my mark on my world?" These questions transcend gender and are as much philosophical and theological as they are gender-induced. Not only are they questions asked by the elites, but they are often questions asked by anyone who wants to make a difference in his/her world. They transcend gender and have been asked throughout human history. Some known and unknown examples: Consider this - Was Joan of Arc a male, insecure about his masculinity? No. Was she even an elite patrician insecure about her masculinity? No. She was neither. The maide of Orleans simply saw the evils and injustices of the English occupation and destruction of France and decided that the Deity had selected HER to DO something about it. And remember those Celts? Go back to Roman-occupied Britain. Was Boudica, British Queen of the Iceni tribe, though an obvious patrician, insecure about her masculinity? What motivated her to take on the most powerful country in the world in an almost hopeless struggle? She was fighting for HER crown as Queen of her tribe because both the Roman culture and law refused to recognize female heirs. The wild and warlike Iceni and most other Celtic tribes DID recognize female rulers as well as the right of women to fight beside their men. Indeed, the Romans describe the incredible ferocity of these women in combat - female fighters who fought beside their men. When Boudica's husband died and the Romans responded to her just (under Celtic law and culture - though not Roman) claim to the throne by flogging her (a intentionally degrading and also non-lethal Roman approach) and her daughters were raped, and when Roman financiers called in their loans to the Iceni, Boudica rose up and led her people. She fought for HER own - her honor, her crown, her daughters' honor and her people. Boudica did just what Joan of Arc did. Was masculine insecurity driving her? She was fighting (and not in some symbolic 21th Century way) for HER place in HER world. Before her final attack, Boudica exhorted her troops from her chariot, her violated daughters standing beside her. She presented herself not as an aristocrat avenging her lost wealth, but as an ordinary person, avenging her lost freedom, her battered body and the abused chastity of her daughters. She told the men that their cause was just, and the gods were on their side. If the men wanted to live in slavery, that was their choice, it was not hers. She fought and died for a cause transcending some masculine inferiority complex or gender-role insecurity. Consider the Russian women who rose up and fought in both the First and Second World War. One woman, Maria Bochkareva fought so well that she was decorated 4 times and allowed to create an all-women volunteer battalion that fought in several engagements, even capturing 3 successive trench lines and a group of completely surprised German soldiers who were marched back to Russian lines. The French resistance in both WW-I and WW-II and Israeli experience have shown that some women, when feel pushed to the edge of endurance are willing to fight for causes altogether transcending gender. As this is being written, there is probably some young Arab Muslim woman training to be a suicide bombers in Iraq. Think about it. Even in the almost totally male-dominated Arab culture, women are picking up AK-47s, RPGs or strapping on bombs to do their "fair share" in their particular struggle. Does masculine insecurity-induced "gender politics" explain their actions? Of course, we're not even talking about the women in today's modern armies. Some of whom are flying high-performance combat aircraft and have participated in combat in numerous places including Iraq. Conclusion. Yes, so-called "masculine insecurities" and "male aggressive myths" of idle elites and even those other not so idle men, should be studied, but it has to be within a much larger context. From ancient times to today, if you get some women mad enough, they'll pick up a rock or a sword or a spear or a musket, or Mosin-Nagent or an AK-47 or an M-16 or strap on an F-16 or F-22 or a bomb and fight, gender-politics be damned .
   
   



5. A well researched and written account of reasons for America's participation in the Spanish American War. The author stirs the reader's interest with numerous primary source citations to support her point and presents revealing information about the American perspective for participating in the Spanish American War.

5 comments about The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898.

1. John Hay called it a "splendid little war". One would be hard pressed to find very many average Americans who could recall even the most basic facts of that war, much less any of the major events or issues. G. J. A. O'Toole, in his book The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898 brings the war, at least from the American point of view, to life in vivid detail.

   In his acknowledgements O'Toole states that for decades the war was "no more than a colorful episode of the Ragtime Era" and a "matter of little historical consequence". He then declares that the intention of his work is to correct this notion. With The Spanish War, O'Toole clearly achieves his objective. For O'Toole the war was much more than John Hay's "splendid little war", it was a "national rite of passage, transforming a former colony into a world power". Drawing from a rich foundation of documents, letters, memoirs and other works, including primary sources from most of the major participants O'Toole provides a detailed and very readable narrative that succeeds in raising the reader's level of understanding of this truly momentous event.




2. se trata nada menos que de glorificar una traicionera guerra de conquista, en la que la union americana a fines del siglo XIX agradecio a la España inmortal la ayuda prestada durante su lucha de independencia, asi los modernos barcos de la u.s. navy, con sus estructiuras de acero y gigantescos cañones y ah! si ebrios marineros, aplastaron a la orgullosa pero decrepita marina española, la cual no obstante obedecio a sus mejores tradiciones; se trata de otro conflicto emprendido por nuestros vecinbos del norte, en contra de los cuales en la actualidad no tengo nada, con el solo animo de conquistar territorios a costa de un viejo y cansado amigo, lo mismo sucedio con México, asi en 1898 en la isla expañola de Guam, en las marianas, llego de visita un barcio yankee de guerra, a los dos dias partio, con los saludos de la popblacion y autoridades españolas locales, pero al dia siguiente regreso con las bocas de sus cañones destapadas y en son de guerra, lo cual no fue advertido por los isleños, lo mismo paso en Veracruz en abril de 1914, aclaro, como ya lo dije que en la actualidad no tengo nada en contra de nuestros primos del norte y que me encantan todos los Bush, padre, hijo, hermano y la mama de estos que es toda una Señora, JFK es un icono en mi vida y he sido Reaganiano, vaya hasta Nixon me caia bien!!!



3. I found this to be a well-written and very readable history of what was called at the time "a splendid little war". For Americans, the Spanish-American war of 1898 was both `splendid' in that it ended in an easy American victory and `little' because it lasted less than 4 months. In 400 pages, the author describes the events leading up to the war, the war itself, and some of its consequences. Much of this description is done with the use of anecdotes that provide insight into the personalities of the people involved and a sense of the atmosphere of the times. For me, this made the story interesting and put a human face on history.
   Although I am not an expert on this period in history, it seems to me that the author has done his research very well. He covers the military and political aspects of the war from the perspectives of the American, Spanish, Cuban and other nations. He presents the human side by describing the feelings of ordinary people involved in the war. He also recounts the important role that the press played in these events. And he does all this in an even-handed manner.
   This is not a dry, scholarly work of history. The author does a good job of conveying the mood of the times and making the story relevant to the average person. For those who are very knowledgeable about the Spanish-American war, it may not be comprehensive enough. But for those, like me, who are unfamiliar with this episode in American history, this book provides an excellent and unbiased overview of the events and I would highly recommend it.



4. The Spanish American War would be all but forgotten if President Roosevelt and the Rough Riders were not made famous by this nice little war. I found the book very easy to read with all the important facts, characters, and action laid out in such a way that you could grasp the big picture of what lead to the war and its effects on the present day. I would recommend this book to any American History buff like myself.



5. This was a very enjoyable read. Some of the ealry chapters were a little slow but they gave me an appropriate amount of backgorund on the war for a better understanding of how it came about. It provided coverage of both the navl war, which significantly affected the resutls, and the army side. However it did provide only brief coverage of the war in the Phillippines. Overall a very pleasant read.

No comments about Spanish Colonial Fortifications in North America 1565-1822 (Fortress).

2 comments about Loving in the War Years: Lo Que Nunca Paso por Sus Labios (South End Press Classics Series) (English and Spanish Edition).

1. This is a classic text in Chicana Feminist literature and in Gender Studies. In the early 1980's, Moraga was at the forefront of feminist theory by U.S. Women of Color which attempted to put issues of racial and ethnic identity in dialogue with issues of feminism and sexuality. Moraga not only critiques the racial and ethnic oppression practiced by mainstrem society, but she bravely critiques the gender opression practiced within Chicano/a communities as well. A "must" for anyone interested in the intesection of race, gender, sexuality and culture. Her moving and brutally honest work brings together essays, stories and poems, both personal and analytical, in a collage that breaks down the barriers between genres as well as between political ideologies. A very powerful book.



2. Moraga's LOVING IN THE WAR YEARS is a classic in Chicana literature indeed. However, the new edition just doesn't cut it. The new essays are interesting to read, but they are not as compelling as the original text. Definitely worth buying, but certainly disappointing as far as "updating" the book.

5 comments about The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s.

1. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, America was witnessing revolutions in every field. Not only in industry were there innovations, but in politics, economy, and society as well. These changes, including the emergence of multi-millionaires like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan, labor unions, and the fight for free silver, continued well into the final decade of the 19th century. The 1890's was a time of unrest in America with corrupt politicians, an agrarian downturn, and other problems. H.W. Brands tries to get a hold of this turbulent age in The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890's.

   Brands' objective in this work is to illustrate the rich history of the "reckless decade," while at the same time drawing parallels to the modern day. His introduction serves as a reminder of this goal. In it, he compares the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. Both periods felt the "brink of a new era... most pronounced in America's cities." The cities in both eras helped reshape the economy. Brands notes that the politics of both decades were entrenched in fear and weariness. Those of the 1890's feared the change of the lives of the farmers with industrialization, while those of the 1990's feared a "ubiquitous, iniquitous liberalism." These comparisons are offered in the introduction, but not given directly in the book.

   Brands covers a startlingly broad selection of events in such a narrow timeframe of history. The competition between the business juggernauts, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan is presented in almost a narrative form, making a mundane matter of economics interesting. Brands spends a chapter discusses the "other half" of society, in distinct contrast with the aforementioned business magnates. He alludes to the work of journalist, Jacob Riis, in how immigrants managed to get by in the slums of New York. Much of the chapter is taken directly from Riis' gloomy portrayal of the ramshackle apartments. Brands discusses in depth the Spanish-American War, Jim Crow laws and segregation, and the national frenzy over gold and silver. One of the more interesting parts of the book was a retelling of the Homestead Strike of 1892. Brands depicts the event as having "the atmosphere a circus. (The better educated of the Pinkertons might have thought of a Roman circus with themselves as Christians and the strikers as the lions.)" The scope of the book misses very little: educational reform may be the only theme untouched in The Reckless Decade.

   The book is written in a very approachable style. Brands is, at times, captivating in his narration of events. Unfortunately, the reading is also slow at some points. The author should be applauded, however, for his extensive research, as the material is exhaustive. The Reckless Decade encapsulates ten years of history in a mere 350 pages.




2. H.W. Brands is one of our best popular historians, and he doesn't disappoint with this book about America in the 1890's. He starts the book with two tales that demonstrate the closing of the frontier- the final major land rush in the Oklahoma Territory, which occurred in 1893; and the fighting at Wounded Knee, in the Dakota Territory, in December 1890, which resulted in the deaths of Sitting Bull and many women and children (noncombatants) at the hands of U.S. Army cavalry troops. The Sioux Indians were left demoralized by this event. Professor Brands grabs our attention with the first sentence of the book: "Fred Sutton had watched the earlier rushes into Oklahoma; he had seen friends no smarter, tougher, or more discerning than himself grab homesteads; and when word came that the government in Washington was going to open up the Cherokee Strip to settlement, he determined that this time he'd get a piece of the action." Later on in the chapter, the author switches from the concrete to the philosophical, telling us what thinkers such as Frederick Jackson Turner and Henry and Brooks Adams had to say about the significance of the closing of the frontier. This balance, in addition to the gripping narrative style, is what makes Professor Brands such a good writer. The book is just plain fun to read, but it is also intellectually challenging. Later chapters deal with the growth and centralization of big business (Carnegie and Rockefeller); the importance of the financier (J.P. Morgan); the urban, immigrant poor and the role of the political machines (Tammany Hall); economic downturn and the plight of farmers; racial discrimination and the different philosophies of Black American leaders on how to improve the lives of Black Americans (Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois); the political battle over the Gold Standard vs. bimetallism (the Populist party, William Jennings Bryan); and the exercise of American power abroad (the Spanish-American War and Theodore Roosevelt). Professor Brands wrote this book in the mid-1990's and he points out some parallels between the two decades- the most obvious being the tendency of people to begin looking outside the political mainstream during periods of great economic uncertainty. During the 1890's people felt under stress from industrialization, economic centralization and also from the severe depression the country was going through. Americans in the 1990's felt the heat of global competition and the uncertainties involved in the ongoing transition from a manufacturing to a more service based economy. The author gently points out some similarities. He wisely doesn't take the analogy too far. As you can see, the book is brimming over with topics and ideas, but it is always a joy to read- not least because of the many fascinating characters who are portrayed. In the section on the rise of big business, Professor Brands entertains us with the story of the competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. Westinghouse originally made his fortune by inventing the railway air brake. When he decided to branch out into electricity, Edison wasn't amused. He muttered to a colleague, "Tell Westinghouse to stick to air brakes." Edison was working on commercializing direct current, while Westinghouse favored alternating current (which uses higher voltages). To try to influence public opinion, Edison had his technicians wire up stray cats and dogs to the higher voltages and switched on the current. Edison put out pamphlets implying that alternating current would do the same thing to people that it did to the unfortunate animals. And when Westinghouse got the contract to provide the electricity for New York State's "electric chairs," Edison remarked that prisoners could now either be hanged or they could be "Westinghoused." So, apparently "The Wizard Of Menlo Park" didn't spend all of his time inventing. He had a few moments left over to engage in some below-the-belt boxing!



3. "The Reckless Decade" is a very readable synthesis of biography, social history, intellectual history, and just good old-fashioned storytelling art. Brands's writing style is electric, his wit sharp, and his discretion as to when to use well-chosen quotations and when to render his own pithy judgments seldom erring.

   A thoroughly enjoyable period history of a time very much like our own.




4. I'm a novelist who does a lot of research. I needed information about the 1890s in the US. This book totally delivered. The book was thorough and dramatic and interesting.



5. This reads as a graduate paper. I forced myself through it because there is information in the text. It is too detailed for a summary read, while not deep enough for an exhaustive study. I was disappointed because some of the author's subsequent books are great.

No comments about War and Peace.

3 comments about Demasiados Heroes/ Too Many Heroes (Spanish Edition).

1. Fue la primera novela que leí por la autora y me gustó muchísimo. Soy maestra y enseño mucho sobre la Guerra Sucia en mis clases de español y Restrepo la trata desde una perspectiva muy personal y auténtica. Se trata más de la relación entre las generaciones, entre madre e hijo, que de la política. Vale la pena leerla aunque ¡quería seguir leyendo después de llegar al final!



2. Novela enmarcada en la epoca de la dictadura militar en Argentina. Muy bie escrita con personajes muy bien desarrollados.



3. Como argentina que soy, se que la historia que cuenta este libro es muy cierta. Si bien recien habia nacido para la epoca de la ultima dictadura militar, mis padres y el colegio se encargaron de hacerme saber todas las atrocidades que los militares cometieron en aquellos tiempos.
   La trama de este libro habla de esa realidad, cruel y sangrienta, a traves del relato de una madre a su hijo. Un hijo que es fruto del amor entre dos "subversivos" y que crece en ausencia de su padre por esas cosas de la vida, porque simplemente el amor entre Lorenza (la madre) y Ramon (el padre) un dia se termino. Lo que no me queda claro, sin embargo, es la razon por la cual Ramon deja pasar el tiempo sin interesarse por su hijo y por que, de repente decide aparecer hacia el final del libro, cuando Mateo (el hijo) lo llama por telefono, pero asi y todo, sin explicaciones.
   Creo que la autora hizo un muy buen trabajo al reflejar la realidad de aquella epoca, no obstante, le falto aclarar algunas cosas al lector, en cuanto a la historia particular de los personajes... Se que los finales abiertos son un desafio a la imaginacion del lector, pero de todas formas, a mi me faltaron explicaciones a la conducta de Ramon para poder encontrarle un buen final a esta historia.

5 comments about The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898.

1. Def. liked this book. It was well-written and presented a topic (and point of view) that I was not familiar with. It was centered around the Spanish American War and how we got into it.
   The point of view that the author Thomas espouses is that this war was the precursor of modern day manufactured wars and that comparisons can be validly drawn between this one and the recent bloodbath in Iraq.
   Portrayed among the architects and supporters of this war are Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roosevelt and abetting them is William Randolph Hearst. Hearst, noted for his eye for inflamatory news stories, worked the american public to a frenzy with features that promoted this war.
   Interestingly, this war was not necessarily one with legitimate roots. The sinking of the battleship Maine may not have been the result of hostile action from Spain or any other concern. Some evidence indicates it may have been caused by an internal explosion, but the premise of this book is that there was a rush to judgement motivated by an imperialistic attitude by the U.S.to acquire other countries/lands for political/economic purposes and this situation fit the bill perfectly.
   While this book relies heavily on the pschological motivation of the key players, it seems sort of high-handed and not necessarily valid. Conversely, I liked the book for the humanizing (and sometimes gossipy )some public figures were portrayed in their private lives.
   This is a good book for anyone interested in american history, Theodore Roosevelt, and warfare of the the period. I am not certain it will be the ultimate last word on this war, but it presents an interesting point of view.



2. The War Lovers is a pretty good book both of history telling the story of the Spanish American war through the eyes of Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge and William Randolph Hearst with several interesting side characters.
   
   The premise of the book is really psychological, Roosevelt being haunted by his father's hiring a substitute to fight during the Civil War and Lodge father too ill to serve, combined with their relationship with the Shaws (as in Robert Gould Shaw), Hearst father who avoided service (although for Hearst that is a much lesser factor in our story) It's shades of The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) the "Lesser sons of greater fathers" business with the twist that the fathers might have been lesser too.
   
   The premise is not as odd as it sounds, it has long been my opinion that much of the current race hucksterism that goes on today as well as some element of modern feminism come from the root of the big battles where there was actual physical risk being already fought and won. Thomas doesn't suggest that Lodge and Roosevelt didn't actually believe that a more marshal philosophy was healthier for the country but seems to point to an almost romantic need for themselves and their country to prove themselves in war.
   
   He also dwells on William James as the counterpoint to the "War Lovers" a person who questions where true courage lies. His portrayal of Csar Reed of the house is the first sympathetic portrait of him I've ever seen.
   
   The book has many strengths. The history of the time is written well, he speaks with a solid voice and when he actually gets to the build up to the war and the battles, the book zooms you want to turn the page and see what is coming up. He treats the actual warriors such as Admiral Dewey very well and without playing any games concerning motives. It is also something to see so many sons of the rich and powerful put themselves in harms way willingly.
   
   Where it is weak is twofold. Thomas is desperate to show the foolishness of war but constrained by the reality of the Civil War where the cause was one he approves of. This makes for an interesting contortion or two, for example James' speech at the dedication of the Shaw memorial. He seems to paint TR's loss of his son in World War 1 almost as if it was a case of poetic justice.
   
   Secondly he uses the war to give cheap shots trying desperately to make the book an allegory about Iraq. A war with bad intelligence, the need to prove one's manliness, the a rush to war etc etc etc. But even there after spending chapter after chapter pointing to Lodge and Roosevelt as wanting and needing war he is forced in a sub-note to acknowledge that the two "were not conspiring together to start a war". The last sentence of the referring to Scooter Libby and Dick Cheney is as cheap a shot as my mentioning Thomas' Grandfather's regular candidacy on the Socialist ticket. Is either relevant to the facts? Nope but it sure demonstrates how the game is played and left a very bad taste in the mouth.
   
   I wish I had read the acknowledgments before I read the book. The debts of gratitude he gives to Cuban officials and official academics explains an awful lot of what comes up. He repeatedly hits the men who fought the war for their contempt for the Cuban rebels (who would have never won without them) He attacks the US for not respecting the racial harmony of the rebels and suggests that the slaughter of of Cuban black vets by their government is 1908 was to appease the US government and only mentions in another subnote that the first non-white ruler of Cuba was Batista who was removed by Castro's revolution.
   
   Even with these weaknesses it is a worthwhile book, without them the book would easily rate 5 stars. His handling of WR Hearst was pretty good and warrants praise. His vision of the era is not illegitimate but knowing where they come from makes the reader a better informed one.
   
   I think it is worth your money.



3. I enjoyed this history-- I don't know much about the 1899 Cuba war, but this was well done. A large net was cast for the research, and so there are quotes from speeches, interviews, correspondence-- both published and unpublished archival material.
   
   I think it would be a better total project if the references to current politics/conflicts were re-edited or simply stripped out. I don't think those will stand up to time and will detract from this otherwise excellent, instructive, and entertaining exploration of fin-de-siecle fascination with war.



4. The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 is an interesting and informative look into the rise of the turn-of-the-century American Empire and the people behind expansionism. The main reason was power. Power for the money makers that run America and the quest for a global empire. The first victim was the aging kingdom of Spain. They were a toothless empire that was running on fumes and royal prestige. Using the old "freedom for the repressed" angle was used and the American public bought it along with the mysterious explosion of the USS Maine. From then on, expansion of the American sphere of influence began along with the establishment of a real global empire. History truly does repeat itself and the comparisons with today's empire and the one founded in 1898 are not only amazing but startling. If you're a fan of history then I suggest you check out this book.



5. Before this book, I had not had the pleasure of reading one of Evan Thomas' books. I picked this one up despite the fawning comments by Thomas in June 2009 ("I mean in a way Obama's standing above the country, above - above the world, he's sort of God.") My original thoughts were if this guy can't be any more unbiased in his observations than that, do I really want to read his stab at history?
   
   Well, I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised. This is a solid history that is told well. The book flows along nicely and the reader is both entertained and informed.
   
   The book's focus is the build-up of public support for the Spanish-American War (1898). As the title notes, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge and William Randolph Hearst are the main subjects in the book but other people round out the story, including Harvard professor and philosopher William James (Pragmatism and Other Writings (Penguin Classics) ), his brother and fellow author Henry James (Henry James: Complete Stories, 1892-1898 (Library of America) ), Speaker of the House Thomas Brackett Read, various surviving family members of deceased Civil War hero Robert Gould Shaw ( Glory ) and great-grandson and grandson of presidents, Henry Adams ( The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version ).
   
   "The War Lovers" gives the reader a vivid portrait of life among the Eastern Elite in the late 19th century - a world so far removed from my experience that I may have well as been reading about a foreign country. But, in a way, the book was full of plenty of people that I have been reading about all of my life. Thomas takes those empty names and fleshes them out with personality, histories and makes them become much more real. On top of that, it is an entertaining read!
   
   Highly recommended.

5 comments about A Young People's History of the United States, Vol. 1: Columbus to the Spanish-American War.

1. As with all of Mr. Zinn's works, this series is clearly written and thorough. Mr. Zinn's writing is very readable, it is always reminiscent of his own pace and phrasing as he speaks. I had been hoping for something like this for a long time. I have given away quite a few copies of The People's History of the United States, but was at a loss for what to do for younger readers. It was proposed by a friend that these books are so constructed and easy to read and understand that maybe even one of the still-confused right-wing supporters might be able to finally get it. In the U.S.A. all most people get is a highly inaccurate and mythologized public school American History education. It is no wonder that they fall victim to Fox news and the propaganda machine of the present regime. They have no frame of reference to weigh facts and spin. They might even actually believe that "They hate us for our "freedoms" and other laughable sound bites. Events do not occur in a vacuum. Truthful history is all we have to clarify and help us learn to prevent the mistakes of the past. The young are our hope so they must be informed.



2. This book and its companion Volume 2 are the perfect introduction to US history. Based on Zinn's larger work, this focuses on a younger audience. It is informative and provides prospective that is different than the material taught in schools. Every child in the US should read these books.



3. For so many groups of people who never got a chance to see themselves in history textbooks, Zinn's A Young People's History is a gem. Far from being "leftist" or "radical," his book tells this nation that it is ok to confront the less-than-humane paths America has taken on its quest for world recognition.



4. This book presents a biased and inaccurate history of the US. In Zinn's eyes America is the source of evil in the world. This is historical revisionism and political correctness at its worst. Instead of this, I would recommend "A Patriot's History of the United States" by Schweikart.



5. After reading that Howard Zinn does not think it is important to investigate 9/11, I will have nothing more to do with him. I don't care how renowned he is. If he doesn't think it's important to stop the false flag operations that have gone on for many, many decades that have thrust us into wars that were instigated by interested 3rd party investors to cash in on the vast fortunes made when they finance both sides of a war, then he will get no support from me. Wake up people! Aren't you tired of being played like a puppet on a string. Watch "JFKII: The Bush Connection" and "Empire of the City: Ring of Power" on YouTube.
   
   [...]

5 comments about Manchild in the Promised Land.

1. I can't believe I didn't write a review for a book I read 10 years ago. This is one of my favorite books. It was this one book that drew me into reading books and becoming a book lover. One of the best books I ever read. Highly Recommended!!



2. Claude Brown's slightly fictionalized autobiography recounts his childhood and early adulthood throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Manchild in the Promised Land also documents the changing atmosphere of Harlem and the people it affected. Brown tells stories of himself as a hell-raiser, involved in theft and drug dealing, and spending time in juvenile detention centers like Wiltwyck and Warwick. He was able to establish a feared and respected name for himself both among the streetwalkers of Harlem and the inmates of the reform schools. Lacking formal education (resulting from years of playing hooky) and idolizing the criminal elements around him, he seemed to be heading down a short road of vice and danger.
   
   Only after Brown moved to Greenwich Village shortly before turning twenty was he able to begin viewing Harlem with a more objective eye, and see the factors that led him down the downward spiral he had been traveling. One of the main reasons Brown believes he and his friends were wrought with such violence and recklessness is due to the mentality imported by their parents from the South. The thing that mattered most to them was fighting: for one's money, girl/family, and manhood (Brown 260). He feels that that rural mentality had been brought to a crowded city life that was not only incompatible with the setting, but also destructive. He laments, "it seems as though if I had stayed in Harlem all my life, I might have never known that there was anything else to life other than sex, religion, liquor, and violence" (Brown 281).
   
   As a youth, Brown excelled in these very base attributes. It wasn't until the introduction of heroine, or "horse," as it was first introduced in the early 1950s, that he feels Harlem truly became unable to cope with their values. Instead of young men fighting for honor, they were killing and robbing for money to sustain their overwhelming addictions, introducing more guns into the neighborhood with desperate people wielding them. He witnessed his friends begin to fade away into scratching, nodding junkies. However, by this time Brown was able to leave and slowly break away from the crumbling Harlem he once knew, watching from afar many of the individuals he once hustled with fall victim to the crimes they themselves would perpetrate.
   
   Many opted instead to stay in Harlem and live the street life. He attributes this to the attitudes of whites outside Harlem and the racism they encountered. To live a "clean" life usually meant to work for a white man who underpaid, referred to them in a racially derogatory manner, and made them perform the most labor intensive tasks. When it came to these prospects, most understandably chose the life of a self-employed drug dealer in Harlem over the self-effacing menial work elsewhere, despite the danger (Brown 287).
   
   Where some people turned to drugs or religion to deal with these problems, Brown found his calling through more established and secular means. Education and music became outlets for him to express himself, gain a self-pride through non-criminal means, and eventually lead to a promising career as a lawyer and author.
   
   One of the things that make this autobiography interesting is its use of language. Brown writes in a notable street dialect, however, the language itself evolves with the character. For instance, "cat" slowly comes into use around page 67 and is used throughout, though it receives less use towards the end. More notably, on page 109 the young Claude begins idolizing a street pimp named Johnny: "To Johnny, every chick was a b*tch. Even mothers were b*tches." And so on page 114 Brown writes "Jackie was a beautiful black b*tch." From then on women are regularly referred to as "b*tches" until the character matures enough to treat women with more respect, and Johnny's spell seems to have completely worn off by the time Brown falls in love with a fellow student. Likewise, the sentence structures become less erratic and grow in sophistication as the book goes on, using less slang chapter by chapter when he begins to change. This seems to be by design.
   
   Claude Brown's personal accounts are no doubt fictionalized to some degree, for his characters go on exhaustive speeches several times, and he certainly didn't tape record them for every word. However, Brown's intentions are to present Harlem and its difficulties in approachable and creative ways. To allow readers (such as white-suburban-me) an inside look into the ways of urban life it invites an understanding and, hopefully, sympathy for the situations of the junkies, prostitutes, and drug dealers that we pass on the street. He shows them in a way that cannot be easily neglected, in intimate, personal relationships that reveal the influences and regrets that have placed them in those situations. These factors were not unique to the 1940s and 1950s. They existed before and do so today. Brown allows insight into the hardships while telling an encouraging tale of one who made it out. By personal drive and education, through art and self-expression (as this book is), he shows that the situation is not dire, but attitudes must change before the world will follow.



3. This is an awesome book that I highly recommend to all young men trying to find their "way". It can be a little harsh, but it is about life in the inner city and a young man becoming a man.



4. Although this book was written in the 1960s, it is, still, very relevant today. This book was recommended to me back in 1983 or 1984 when I was in the military. I bought it with a number of other books. It took me twenty years to read it. I should have read it alot sooner; but, the rigors of life and the fact that a good many other books I bought kept pushing this one further back on the reading list. I grew up in the streets of NYC and saw his life being played out in a number of guys and gals I hung out with at that time. I didn't get caught up in the drug scene nor in the gangsta scene but, like the author, there was a lot going on outside the walls of the house to keep me outside nearly all day. Yeah this world was much newer for me then rather than now but I had to see what was going on within and without my neighborhood. As a parent looking at my kid, I know this world is new to them, which I can't shelter them from. As my kids look at me as their parent, they are constantly telling me to get out of their way. I want to see what is going out there. This only helps me to keep life real for them with a dose of non-reality here and there. Fortunately for Claude Brown, the street made him wise and through his book some of us can reminesce about those days and explain to others what urban life was like for us and how it made us what we are today. For others who have not experienced this urban lifestyle, take the book for what it is and re-evaluate your own experiences in hopes of passing on a reality check of your own life to your children.



5. Claude Brown's "Manchild in the Promised Land" is an American story, a story of urban community, living in it and surviving it. It's street life pure and simple, how one grows and survives in it, and if fortunate breaks free of it. To this day I do not understand why this has not become a movie or even a movie series. The story is more than that good.