Max Boot - The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power

Praise for Max Boots
The Savage Wars of Peace

Selected as one of the best books of 2002 by the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor

Winner of the 2003 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award, given annually by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation for the best nonfiction book pertaining to Marine Corps history

[Boot] tells the story with clarity and verve, rediscovering on the way some lesser-known American heroes.... Clear narrative plus such tales of daring-do are enough on their own to make this book enjoyable. But Mr. Boot is also trying to make a point about the present.... Enjoyable... Informative.

The Economist

In its high-spirited early chapters, Max Boots The Savage Wars of Peace recalls Patrick OBrians Aubrey and Maturin saga.... In his concluding comments, Boot sets out a thoughtful list of lessons that should have been learned.

New York Review of Books

Max Boots The Savage Wars of Peace makes it possible to revisit that past imperial tradition and mine it for lessons that might improve the management of todays global order... by reviewing the nations past, he shows its future.... Thanks to Boots journalistic sensehe is editorial features editor at the Wall Street Journalthose lessons make for a great story and a compelling read. Boot combines a wide-angle perspective with an eye for detail.

Foreign Affairs

A book that has becomevery much like [Paul] Kennedys, [Francis] Fukuyamas and [Samuel] Huntingtonsmust reading in Congress, the Pentagon and among Washingtons columnists and think-tankers.

Business Times

By collecting the best exploits from some of the most significant small wars between two covers, [Boot has] done a real public and strategic service.

Slate

Lively and nuanced... Fascinating history... Admirably evenhanded.

The Christian Science Monitor

Boots well-written narrative is not only fascinating reading, but didactic as well.... The events of September 11 give The Savage Wars of Peace an uncanny timeliness and sadly confirm almost all of Boots dispassionate warnings.

The Weekly Standard

Excellent.... There are some cracking good stories herethe exploits of Marine Corps legend Smedley Butler in China, the Philippines, Nicaragua, and Haitibut also some important lessons.

MICHAEL BARONE, US News & World Report

A rollicking... chronicle of 200 years of American war making.... Boots narrative bustles with engaging personalities and forgotten heroes.

The Chicago Tribune

The book of the season.... 9/11 and its aftermath brought Boots messagefor which the adjective timely might have been inventedinto eye-opening focus.

National Journal

Boot is a bracing storyteller, and one of the books strengths is his recounting of some... forgotten episodes.

Claremont Review of Books

Excellent.... Boot combines meticulous scholarship with great storytelling and provocative opinions. He draws from his research direct lessons for a nation confronting the threat of global terrorism.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Mr. Boots analysis is very compelling and sensible.... The Savage Wars of Peace is an important book, which teaches a real and essential lesson about American foreign policy makers and army generals. May we heed its lessons in the years to come.

The New Criterion

Few books published this decade will be timelier than Max Boots The Savage Wars of Peace.

Commentary

What a pleasure to read a crisp preface that promises a fun read, and to have the rest of the book deliver. The Savage Wars of Peace is an entertaining jaunt through many of the expeditions, counterinsurgencies, and (insert your preferred term here) that United States armed forces have undertaken since the beginning of the Republic. Along the way the author offers political analysis that hits its mark time and again.

The Journal of Military History

It is entertaining, provocative, and often insightful history of Americas small wars.... Boot has crafted a thumping good, rockem-sockem sort of narrative. Heroic, adventure, graphic battles, gory details.

Policy Review

Rousing... Notable... Important.

New York Sun

To read the book is to gain deeper understanding of the primal ferocity of Americas colonial wars.... Boots book puts those conflicts into political, social and historical contexta useful exercise given the military and political challenges laid at the nations feet on Sept. 11.

New York Post

Serious students of foreign policy, no matter what their leanings, will want to entertain his arguments.

Kirkus Reviews

Boot has written a readable and thought-provoking bookone that might well influence the behind-the-scenes debates over the future of military policy.

Library Journal

You probably know about the great American assault at Inchon, Korea. But did you know the first one was in 1871? This book is a revelation and taught me how little I knew about American military history. Read The Savage Wars of Peace and learn what really happened in those Halls of Montezuma and on the Shores of Tripoli.

JAMES BRADLEY, author of Flags of Our Fathers

Not only truly engaging reading but also enlightening history which incisively illuminates Americas current strategic challenges.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, Former National Security Adviser

The Savage Wars of Peace is a groundbreaking book that separates fact from myth on the use of American military power throughout our nations history. Max Boots journey through Americas small wars mines fascinating and important yet virtually ignored territory. The stories he tells are compelling and could change your views on one of the most important issues facing our nation: the use of military force as a policy instrument.

RICHARD HOLBROOKE, Former Ambassador to the United Nations

An illuminating survey of Americas readiness in the past to fight short, sharp wars against international nuisances. This is a vivid and timely book which holds memorable lessons for the West.

PAUL JOHNSON, author of Modern Times and A History of the American People

This deft and colorful examination of U.S. military expeditions abroad rightly explodes the canard that America was once isolationist and shifts the current debate from a question of whether to a question of how America can best employ force overseas to manage its informal empire. Brilliant and cheeky as always, Boot throws down his gantlet to critics on the left and right alike.