TRASK : The war with Spain in 1898 (fülszöveg)
The explosion that sank the battleship Maine and sent 266 American sailors to their deaths in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898 sparked a war that, in little more than 100 days, turned the United States into a great world power.
In this latest contribution to the acclaimed Macmillan Wars of the United States series, David F. Trask takes a close look at the Spanish-American War, from the first Cuban insurrections against Spain to the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
Trask's vivid narrative follows all of the heroes, battles, tactics, and strategies of a war the United States was reluctant to fight, but determined to win. He recounts the bloody storming of El Caney and San Juan Heights, as well as the almost bloodless capture of Santiago by the 60-year-old, 300-pound Major General William R. Shafter. Trask also recalls the figures—both little-known and overpraised—of this war where malaria and yellow fever were more deadly than enemy guns—from Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and his romanticized "Rough Riders," to Admiral Cervera y Topete, who led the gallant, but futile, struggle against U.S. warships at Santiago. Trask devotes considerable attention to the war at sea, where Commodore George Dewey's swift and brilliant victory at Manila, and Admiral William Sampson's successful blockade of Cuban ports typified the U.S. Navy's near-total dominance.
Much more than a superbly detailed military history, The War with Spain in 1898 examines every aspect of the complex political and diplomatic background of the war, at home and abroad. Trask chronicles the frantic diplomacy that failed to avert war, the sudden mobilization of a volunteer U.S. Army, and President McKinley's surprisingly effective coordination of planning and operations.
Trask also reaches a number of new conclusions, revealing that the United States did not declare war to build a colonial empire (as many recent historians argue). Public outrage over the Maine, fueled by sensationalistic newspaper accounts, forced an unwilling McKinley into battle to free Cuba; the decision to acquire the Philippines and Puerto Rico came later.
International in scope, with fresh insights into the relation between force and diplomacy, this is certain to become the definitive account of the "brief, glorious, and inexpensive" conflict that crushed the Spanish empire, made the Caribbean an American lake, the Philippines a strong foothold in Asia—and won the United States its place in the modern world.
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| KATALÓGUS | TARTALOM |
