America's "small wars," "imperial war," or, as the Pentagon now terms them, "low-intensity conflicts," have played an essential but little-appreciated role in its growth as a world power. Beginning with Jefferson's expedition against the Barbary pirates, Max Boot tells the exciting stories of our sometimes minor but often bloody landings in Samoa, the Philippines, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Russia, and elsewhere. Along the way he sketches colorful portraits of little-known military heroes such as Stephen Decatur, "Fighting Fred" Funston, and Smedly Butler.
This revised and updated edition of Boot's compellingly readable history of the forgotten wars that helped promote America's rise in the lst two centuries includes a wealth of new material, including a chapter on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a new afterword on the lessons of the post-9/11 world.
Preface: Another American Way of War
Chapter 1. “To Conquer Upon the Sea”: Barbary Wars, 1801–1805, 1815
Chapter 2. “Butcher and Bolt”: From the Marquesas, 1813, to China, 1859
Chapter 3. Empire Emerging: From Korea, 1871, to Samoa, 1899
Chapter 4. Red Summer: Boxer Uprising, 1900
Chapter 5. “Attraction” and “Chastisement”: The Philippine War, 1899–1902
Chapter 6. Caribbean Constabulary: Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, 1898–1914
Chapter 7. Lords of Hispaniola: Haiti, 1915–1934; Dominican Republic, 1916–1924
Chapter 8. The Dusty Trail: The Pancho Villa Punitive Expedition, 1916–1917
Chapter 9. Blood on the Snow: Russia, 1918–1920
Chapter 10. Chasing Sandino: Nicaragua, 1926–1933
Chapter 11. “By Bluff Alone”: China, 1901–1941
Chapter 12. Lessons Learned: The Small Wars Manual
Chapter 13. Lessons Unlearned: Vietnam, 1959–1975
Chapter 14. In the Shadow of Vietnam: The Powell Doctrine and Small Wars in the 1990s
Chapter 15. In the Shadow of 9/11: The Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
Chapter 16. In Defense of the Pax Americana: Small Wars in the Twenty-First Century