| Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century |  | Author: Ivan Musicant
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $23.10
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 1657920
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 768
ISBN: 080508956X
Dewey Decimal Number: 900
EAN: 9780805089561
ASIN: 080508956X
Publication Date: May 21, 2008
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Amazon.com
On the centennial of the Spanish-American War, the short and confusing conflict receives comprehensive treatment in a narrative of more than 600 pages. At the close of the 19th century, Americans were looking outward at the world. In a precursor to the foreign involvement of the next century the U.S. Navy found itself fighting in the Philippines, and the infantry (and Theodore Roosevelt's volunteer cavalrymen) entered combat (and battle illness) on the island of Cuba. The Spanish-American War has often been overlooked as an oddity, but those who want to understand its role in American history now have access to what may stand as the definitive history of the war that led to the United States being regarded as a world power.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Definitive Single Volume History of the Spanish American War March 31, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Musicant has a difficult problem in writing about a two ocean war that was fought by different schedules and hampered by spotty communications between combatants. However, by breaking down the events of the war into a roughly chronological sequence, Musciant is able to produce a narrative that allows readers to see the war at a strategic and tactical level. Naturally there are some overlaps of chronology as the Battle of Manila Bay was fought and won before things really got set up around Cuba and Puerto Rico but these things do not disrupt the overall quality of his richly detailed narrative. Definitely worth a place on the shelf of anyone interested in 19th Century American History.
 Gack. A boring, difficult, unrewarding read. July 30, 2004
0 out of 10 found this review helpful
This thing...this book of Musicant's...isn't hitting on all of its cylinders. Musicant is incapable of maintaining a coherent chronology. His source material is limited. The work is not difficult intellecutally -- in fact, the opposite -- but is made difficult by Musicant's consistently poor use of English; he so often puts adjectives in the wrong place that the reader frequently has to stop and try to figure out (or guess) what he means...the difference between
wonderful book, lacks some clarity February 21, 2003
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
A wonderful military book. This book details the Spanish America war and its environs. it details the important figures like Mahan, Dewey, Roosevelt. It details the rise of guerrilla warfare in Cuba and the Phillipines. Nevertheless I felt it did not eleborate on the importance of the conflict internationally. It iverestimated the Americans as showsing the war to be won before it was fought. The reality of the conflict, the first defeat of a European power by a non-european power(the Russo-Japanese war was in 1905). Although one passage relates the newspaper jingoism detailing the first shots of the rugged americans against the sparkling halmets of the Spanish soldiers, it underestimates the impact of this war in which the Americans whiped european colonism off the face of the American continent.
A lively history of a largely forgotten event March 26, 2002
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
It takes some skill to hold a reader's attention for 658 pages. Musicant generally succeeds in his narrative of the Spanish-American war. A specialist in naval history, Musicant gives particularly close attention to the naval battles at Manila and Santiago de Cuba. His description of the gallant but hopeless attempt by the Spanish fleet to escape from Santiago is gripping. Other striking sections describe the chaos of the American embarkation at Tampa and the suffering of American troops investing Santiago. In other parts of the book, the detailed accounts of military politics and preparations may lead many readers to skip ahead. The most disappointing part of the book is the last chapter titled "Empire," a very abbreviated commentary on "the dawn of the American century." The book is reasonably well served by its few maps and its black and white photographs.
 Excellent Narrative Account of "The Splendid Little War" February 15, 2002
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Being a Civil War buff and author who is considering doing a work on the Indian Wars, I have always been fascinated by that period between the Civil War and the turn of the century.Especially on its effect on the U.S. Army as it fought both the Indian Wars and the Spanish American War under the leadership of former Civil War Generals, and Musicant does not disappoint. Some of the names are familiar - Nelson Miles, Wesley Merritt, Admiral (George) Dewey,and of course, the Confederate Cavalry great "Fighting Joe" Joseph Wheeler. And the not-so-well known - men such as William Rufus Shafter, the corpulent former Union officer and presumed model for "Pecos Bill", who was named commander of the expeditionary forces in Cuba and who often clashed with both his superiors in Washington, and with one certain volunteer colonel by the name of Theodore Roosevelt. To be fair, I haven't gotten to the military operations nor the logistical problems experienced by the U.S. Army - poisoned (embalmed) beef, lack of smokeless cartridges (the antiqudated Spanish Army was more "modern" in this respect), as Musicant's account is an excellent read. But he does effectively score the two Presidents who bungled into the Cuban morass - Cleveland, definitely the Bill Clinton of his time, and William McKinley, a man of great character and virtue but hamstrung by a senile Secretary of State (William Tecumseh Sherman's brother) and politico appointees as well as his own desire to please all.
The account of the destruction of the USS Maine which finally provoked McKinley is the finest that I have read. Musicant shows great knowledge of the Cuban situation and of the Spanish predicament. I only wish that he had covered the infamous "Virginius" affair, when the American Captain Joseph Fry, a former Confederate hero, and a score of American sailors were brutally executed by Spanish authorities after trying to smuggle guns to Cuban insurgents. This happened during the time of Grant's Presidency, and it nearly then led to war with Spain...Who knows - it might have been George Armstrong Custer leading the charge up San Juan Hill instead of Teddy. The US wasn't spoiling for a fight with Spain in 1873 - 25 years later, it was.
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